As businesses in a cross section of industries become increasingly knowledgeable about environmentally friendly practices so too does your offsite storage supplier. When businesses are considering how to make their office space more environmentally friendly they should also be considering the external services they use.
Whilst a company might have no control over what practices an offsite storage supplier uses, a company can make sure it choses an storage facility that prides itself on environmental mindfulness. Offsite storage suppliers are by their very nature environmentally friendly. They store high volumes of documents in compact commercial spaces. Offsite storage facilities, like the businesses’ they accommodate, need to go even further these days to impress environmentally savvy clients.
To learn more about how to find first class record management companies check out our post: Document Storage companies that excel – How to find them?
10 Ways to Identify a Green Offsite Storage Supplier
- Delivery and Collection: Storage facilities that aim to reduce their carbon foot print will use delivery and collection driving as productively as possible. For example, combining the collection of a shredding bin with the delivery of requested documents.
- Location: A storage facility in a location that makes it more accessible to clients is likely to be saving fuel. Facilities near major transport links and cities will be driving the shorter distances.
- Vehicles: Clients should expect the facilities’ vehicles to be LPG powered, LPG reduces CO2 emissions by an estimated 25% compared to ordinary petrol.
- Document Auditing: By efficiently auditing documents upon arrival storage vendors can save space by recycling documents that have reached the end of their retention lifecycle.
- Document Scanning: All competitive storage facilities will offer a document scanning service but it is none the less important to highlight the environmental benefits of this service. Scanning documents saves paper and space.
- Responsible Employees: Storage companies should encourage their employees to be more environmentally responsible. Storage companies can encourage employees to use public transport and car shares.
- Energy Usage: Document storage facilities will have to use energy however facilities can have an energy audit to discover which areas of their business they can cut down on energy usage.
- Document Shredding: An environment conscious storage vendor will recycle all shredded material. By using a paper recycling shredding service your own company can prove its own eco initiative and will be eligible for the much prized carbon neutral status.
- Environmental Management: Storage companies should have in place an environment policy. A guideline for employees and even customers, fully endorsed by all directors, managers and supervisors, to demonstrate the environmental standards they expect.
- Initiative: A storage company that is truly striving for that carbon neutral status will come up with their own innovating ideas. Look out for companies that are trying out new and unusual practices.
By simply monitoring waste production and consumption of natural resources an offsite storage facility can show off its environmental credentials to clients. However, in this increasingly eco-friendly market storage facilities will often have to go that extra mile to gain that sought-after carbon neutral status.
An offsite storage supplier is not only likely to make your company more environmentally viable but it will save your business valuable space and expenditure too. It will benefit any company, of any size, that currently stores its files onsite.
