Well hello to you my reader chums! Over the past few years, I've been a lot more conscious of my carbon footprint and how my everyday actions are affecting the planet. Like many people, I'm trying to do my best to be sustainable as possible, whether that means with my wardrobe, beauty products, or how I travel to my business.

I run a home baking business called Twinnies Bake with my sister. Over the years, I've tried as much as I can to ensure how we're running it is as eco-friendly as possible. If you're running a side hustle or small business, here are a few ways how to make your small business more eco-friendly.

This post is a paid collaboration with Lil Packaging but all thoughts are my own.

Try to limit waste where you can 

When it comes to running a business, I know how much waste you can accumulate over time, whether that's packaging, paper, food waste, or more. I go through a lot of it when I'm baking, especially the number of wrappers I use from different chocolates or food products. However, where possible, try and limit the waste. This could be by purchasing products in bulk, repurposing the containers, or buying decomposable items.

Think about the packaging you're using

For many businesses, especially those online, the right type of packaging is key to ensuring your products are secured safely but also playing your part for the planet. Lil Packaging is a bespoke packaging company producing plastic-free, 100% recyclable e-commerce packaging made from recycled papers. They have an entire range of packaging from envelopes to large boxes, offering every type of packaging, for whatever your business may be. With that in mind, you want to consider how sustainable the packaging you're using is and if it is able to be recycled or reused.

Recycle as much as possible

Recycling is one of the most important things to reduce waste as it helps us use items or waste and turn it into something new, to give the waste a different purpose. When you're throwing things out in your business, ensure you recycle all the items that you're able to and dispose of things correctly. It'll do more help than you realise.

Conserve water

Water is something I feel like a lot of us need to feel more grateful for as in many countries around the world, they don't have clean or freshwater. This is why it's so important to conserve it but also because we shouldn't waste unnecessarily. Think about how you're able to conserve water. This could be using leftover water in the kettle to fill up the sink, or water left out to water your plants. There are many different ways, you just need to be creative,

Research the sources of your ingredients/products

I think many of us (me included) sometimes don't really think about where we source our items from, especially from a business perspective because we want things as cheap as possible to help with profits. However, even though it can help from a profit perspective, usually items may be cheaper because of where they're sourced or how they've been sourced. Do some research about your suppliers and where they're from, and try to see if you're able to make the process greener in some way.

Use green shipping methods

You can be a lot greener with how you ship things out to your customers. One way to do that is to use the right size boxes for the things you're sending off. How many times have you received a parcel that was far too big for what you actually purchased? Didn't you think, isn't that wasteful? Channel that mindset into buying the right-sized boxes. Also, you can encourage customers to order things in one order rather than multiple so you're shipping in bulk instead of individually.

Use reusable items where possible

Reusing things may not seem like the best kind of business move for your customers, however, there are so many things you can reuse which won't tarnish the quality of your product or service. For example, if you run a coffee shop, encourage customers to bring in reusable coffee cups for their drinks.

Collab with a sustainable charity

There are so many incredible charities that do their best for the planet. To do your bit, see if you're able to collab with a charity. This could be something like x amount going towards x charity when a sale is made. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. What other tips do you have?

Thank you for reading <3