5 Simple Ways to Make Environmentally Friendly Changes for Your Building

Julie Starr • February 28, 2022



Making more sustainable choices in business is something that more and more consumers are demanding from companies. It isn’t enough now to remove the use of plastic, for example, from your packaging or supplies; looking at your overall business practices, buildings, and environment can further cement your commitment and improve your customer relations at the same time. A recent study found that over 55% of people are willing to pay more for products or services from companies with a vested interest in promoting ethical or green practices . This further reinforces that consumer habits influence their spending and who they do business with.

If you are looking to make eco-friendly upgrades , it is essential to remember that to be fully sustainable; you need to use existing products where possible until they have reached the end of their lifespan or donate them to a facility that can reuse or recycle them. Then you can implement some or all of the following suggestions to your business and building.

Smart Lighting

Lighting has been a hot topic in the sustainability world for some time now. Old, traditional lighting systems are being replaced by more efficient and environmentally friendly lighting that also looks great.

What is Smart Lighting?

Smart lighting uses LEDs or other light-emitting diodes that can be turned on or off via an app or remote control. This can lead to a reduction in energy consumption which means lower bills for your business. What’s even better is that LED lights last longer and are more durable than old lighting systems, so you will not need to purchase new lights as often as before.

Smart lighting systems are computerized and connect to a grid that controls when light is on or off. This means you can set schedules for your lights so that they turn off automatically during the hours when no one is in the building. You can also set them to turn on automatically if someone walks by.

The best part about this system is that it uses sensors and motion detectors, which means it will only use electricity when necessary.

Use Asphalt for Roads and Car Parks

Road asphalt is a product that can be recycled and used as an alternative to concrete or bitumen. Not only is it cheaper than other construction materials, but it also has a lower environmental impact. Asphalt requires less energy to produce and will last longer than regular concrete. It’s one of the most sustainable building materials on the planet.

Work with an experienced asphalt and concrete contractor to apply new surfaces or pathways to external areas where required.

Improve Insulation

Insulating your business is a wise and cost-effective way to improve the environmental footprint of your building. A smart investment in insulation can reduce your heating and cooling costs, as well as boost your property value.

It’s not difficult to install insulation. Vinyl, foam, fiberglass, or cellulose are all affordable materials that can be added to walls and ceilings for increased efficiency. In addition, you might consider installing radiant barriers in attics and adding extra weather stripping around windows and doors.

The process of insulating a building or office space is an essential step in making it more eco-friendly. Improved insulation will help reduce the amount of energy used by the building during the winter months and summer months. This also saves money on utility bills for the building and the occupants. The energy savings from insulated buildings also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 20%.

Have A Preventative Maintenance Plan

One of the easiest things you can do to make your building more environmentally friendly is to have a preventative maintenance plan . That will mean regular checks and cleanings, correcting any nagging problems that may have been ignored before, and having building professionals come in regularly to do inspections. This will increase the lifespan of many parts of your building and keep your utility bill under control.

The best way to do this is to use software that can monitor and automate the process and keep detailed records. You can keep track of an asset’s age, previous issues, and maintenance history, as well as schedule any future appointments with the right software. A further advantage of using automated facility software is that it eliminates the need for paperwork orders and service requests, which tend to accumulate, get misplaced, or get thrown away. Additionally, your team’s efficiency will almost certainly improve, and you will eliminate paper waste as a result of the process.

Use Green Cleaning Products

Switching to green cleaning products is one of the easiest ways to make your business more environmentally friendly; instead of using harsh chemicals, which can impact the air quality in your building, use eco-friendly products that are safe for you and your employees. This will not only save money on long-term health care costs for employees who might be exposed to these chemicals, but it will also reduce the risk of workers’ compensation claims.

Another thing you can do is switch from disposable products to durable and reusable ones. This will help you avoid spending money on items that need to be thrown away after they’ve been used once or twice. Use refillable water bottles instead of disposable cups and coffee mugs, utensils made from biodegradable materials instead of plasticware, and cloth napkins rather than paper ones. You can even purchase durable supplies like pens, markers, and even paper, so you never have to worry about repurchasing new ones.

Conclusion

The green movement has infiltrated every facet of our lives, so it is not surprising that we see the same trend in the business world. We want to do everything we can to be environmentally conscious, and you can start by making some simple changes to your business.

No matter the size of your company, there are several small changes you can make to promote environmental friendliness.

By implementing these five simple changes, you can reduce your building’s environmental impact and make a positive difference in the world. The best part? You’ll also be saving money and time!

Smart Sensors, Smarter Supply Chains: Enhancing Traceability in Food & Beverage

By Julie Starr • June 20, 2025
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.

Eco-Friendly Garden Prep: Summer Tips for a Greener Business Space

By Julie Starr • June 5, 2025
If you're lucky enough to have a garden as part of your business, taking some time to set it up for summer is a great investment of your energy. Not only will it be ready for your customers to spend time in, but you can also incorporate some eco-friendly elements into it. Many people just think about the property and what eco-friendly updates they can make , but there are plenty that you can implement in your garden. This gives you the best of both worlds. You own a sacred and beautiful place for your customers to spend their summer, and at the same time, you can do your part for a better planet. If this is the route you want to take, then you also need to consider how to do this with the different seasons. To help you on your journey, here are some top tips for preparing your garden for summer. Plant trees and flowers Planting trees and flowers in your garden is a must. It will make a beautiful scene of nature for everyone to enjoy. Trees will provide people and animals with shade, as well as provide a habitat for wildlife. More trees are needed in the world because they purify the air that we breathe. Flowers, especially if you plant with pollinators in mind, can be an excellent way to attract bees and butterflies, which contribute largely to the earth. Use natural pest control When preparing your garden for summer, you can do this more sustainably and kindly by using natural pest control. Simply by planting trees and flowers, you are likely to attract lots of different wildlife, some of which may destroy your efforts. While all wildlife should be considered, you may need to take measures. Some better and more eco-friendly ways you can do this, as opposed to spraying toxic chemicals onto your plants and into the air, you can implement companion planting, using protective nets over your crops, choosing resilient plants, using natural repellents, and encouraging natural predators so nature can do its thing. Maintain your garden Maintaining your garden in itself can make it more eco-friendly. Composting your garden waste regularly, and kitchen waste can help you to reduce overall waste and create nutrient-rich soil. This is a great cycle of sustainability. You can also keep on top of things that need cleaning and replacing, so you can recycle the materials for other garden structures and projects, and repurpose things around your garden before they become waste. If you have features in your garden like a swimming pool, then a regular pool maintenance service is going to be vital in keeping your water consumption to a minimum, as when it is cleaned and maintained, it will need to be drained and refilled less as well as using less energy. You could also consider how you can use natural purification methods to reduce chemical usage and support biodiversity right in your backyard. Your garden is just an eco-friendly project waiting to be built. Use these top tips to help you get started.