In this day and age in Australia, lots of homeowners are beginning to take their responsibility for the impact their lifestyle has on the environment and climate change in general. It takes a lot of time, effort and research to ensure the products we are using are not having a negative impact on the environment.

There are several different factors that go into making any product eco-friendly. Here are the four questions that need to be asked?

• Is it energy efficient?
• Is it made out of recycled content?
• Is it made out of natural, non-toxic materials?
• Is it sustainable?

Window coverings are needed by all homes for practical purposes in addition to style. However, these days there is a strong push towards eco friendliness and sustainability for the home, this has lead to products like plantation shutters Oran Park becoming very popular. The following our tips to help make sure the window coverings you get are environmentally friendly as well as good looking.
An increasing number of window blinds and shutter companies now remove toxins out of their products, and use more natural materials in addition to recycled content. One of the leading companies to keep up with today’s green movement is Hunter Douglas Window Coverings.

Window Coverings Made with Eco Friendly Materials Save Energy

Another thing to consider is that window coverings are able to help save energy, which lowers the cost of your energy bills. The way that they do this is through providing windows with a barrier over them to stop unwanted heat from escaping or entering a home, and help to stop other things such as draughts. Window coverings also provide a way of controlling light, which helps you significantly reduce your dependency on artificial lighting over the course of a day.

Search For Materials That Are Eco Friendly

One of the best ways to make sure that you have eco friendly window covering is to select the appropriate materials. There are numerous environmentally friendly materials and you will be surprised at what some of your options are. The choices available to you include natural fibres like organic cotton, PVC, timber (coming from sustainable plantations), bamboo, recycled paper and hemp. Cellular shades or honeycomb blinds are very environmentally friendly also. Although it is critical to select sustainable material to use on your window coverings from the very beginning, the window coverings are recyclable so you won’t have to worry about them taking up space in the landfill after you don’t need them any longer.

Window Coverings That Are Eco Friendly Complement The Home and Are Attractive

One of the main advantages offered by window coverings that are eco friendly is they are very attractive. These window coverings come in a wide range of styles, from modern to country, and a broad range of patterns, textures and colours.

What that is means is that it isn’t necessary to sacrifice efficiency and sustainability to find window coverings you really like.

1. Plantation Shutters

Plantation Shutters made from timbers like Basswood are very carbon friendly, the basswood holds carbon and will reduce your home’s carbon footprint. So many people are getting plantation shutters because they look amazing, but they also contribute to holding carbon as opposed to blinds made of synthetic materials.

Source: http://designplantationshutters.com.au/

2. Custom Timber Shutters

It is common in warmer climates to see “Bahama” Shutters or hurricane shutters. Those shutters help to provide maximum ventilation through enabling cool breezes in while allowing hot air to get out. Great shade is also provided by these shutters. If the area you live in gets hit with summer storms frequently, then they also can add a layer of protection to help protect your windows.

3. Use Upcycling To Reduce Clutter and Showcase Treasures

One great way to provide your home with added style with minimal environmental impact is to make your own window coverings from items that are in your house already. Do you have any antique handkerchiefs or scarves stored away someplace?

4. Bamboo Shutters and Blinds

Bamboo window coverings are available in a range of styles including drapes, panels, roller shades and roman shades. They can be found in various weaves, textures and colours. They filter light naturally, but a liner may be added in order to increase privacy and block light. They can be combined successfully with fabric drapery panels.

Today’s practice of Corporate Social Responsibility is seen as a practice that is only practice by the worlds largest corporations. However there are some great examples of small businesses throughout the World practicing the principle of CSR in a very real, practical way.

Stonyfield Yogurt Sustainable Manufacturing

The Stonyfield yogurt company decades ago developed out of an organic farm school promoting healthy food, a clean environment and family farms. Milk from the cows was used by the owners for funding their work in order to make fertilizer-free, pesticide-free yogurt. This product was a huge success and became the main focus of the business, which currently purchases ingredient from hundred of different organic farms and is operated on the basis of environmentally friendly principles.

Although Stonyfield does have a unique story, it does demonstrate that it is possible for small businesses to embrace corporate social responsibility and sustainability – practices which support fair working conditions, the environment and other kinds of beneficial social conditions for the individuals and communities that they come into contact with – while strengthening and growing the bottom line at the same time.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization states that the management concept of “corporate social responsibility” refers to when environmental and social concerns are integrated by companies into their business operations as well as the interactions they have with their stakeholders.

Becoming Green as a Small Business

A North Carolina-based program for helping medium and small business become more sustainable and greener called Green Plus, states that it works on the basis of a triple bottom line philosophy of sustainability, which means they help to improve the bottom line of a business by focusing on its business, social and environmental practices, which they refer to as the performance, people and planet aspects of a business.

Green Plus as well as other government agencies and organizations refer to a number of different companies that have made the conscious decision and taken the appropriate action towards becoming more sustainable. (There is links provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration regarding some of the businesses.)

One of the companies certified by Green Plus is Food FWD which is a food waste diversion startup based in Durham, NC. The company goes to restaurants and collects food waste and then brings it to a local area compster. Green Plus notes that compostable serviceware is also sold by Food FWD.

On the company’s values and mission pages is states that it only adopts a policy, product or service if it adds value to the planet, people and profits. It adds that sacrifices will not be made to the environment, employment, customer relationships or service for the purposes of earning an extra profit.

St. Paul, Minnesota-based Bix Produce, sells to universities, hotels and restaurants. According to Green Plus, the increasing need of customers for sustainably raised and locally grown food made it important to Bix to do what it could to meet customers needs, and ensuring that its business served its employees as well through providing them with a really good place to work.

Bix belongs to a national network made up of independent local distributors that help with promoting an initiative called Greener Fields Together. A “seed-to-fork approach” is taken to bring sustainable and safe produce in ways that are environmentally friendly to ballparks, hospitals, grocers, restaurants and other types of businesses.

Ethically Sourcing Raw Ingredients

Kosmea is a natural skincare product company based in Adelaide SA. When Kosmea decided to start sourcing their own rose hip oil for their skin care range they decided to look at more than just affordability and ingredient quality. They also wanted the rosehips to be ethically sourced.

After extensive research,Kosmea emplyed the local people of Ledotho in Southern Africa to hand pick wild rosehips in a sustainable way. The company gets the benefit of a truely organic rose hip oil, and the people of Lesotho are provided with a sustainable income.

Tips for Moving Your Business in the Right Direction

Utilize energy-efficient technology, such as Energy-star qualified cooling and heating systems, building products and appliances for cutting air pollution out of power plants. Consider making use of “green power” – electricity coming from renewable resources like wind energy, geothermal and solar. Drive a fuel efficient car.

Cut down your paper usage by recycling paper, using double-sided copying and electronically distributing documents. Conserve water through installing water-efficient appliances, utilizing faucets that automatically turn off and fixing leaky plumbing, among other measures.

Even if your company’s origin story doesn’t involve sustainability, your small business has the ability to benefit from and embrace socially conscious and environmentally friendly practices.

The Corporate Responsibility Shows Green

The causes protecting the environment can never be tougher than it is now. Concerns about Global warming has been buoyed so significantly in many corporations all over the world. The outcry to address concerns takes on the issue of corrupting the environment. Corporations who have the means through revenues from productions at the moment, have taken the call seriously. Running institutions that ease the flow of services to individual consumers take on the greening responsibility through the trends in the best practices among corporations that are now actively feeding. Laws for corporate institutions to be in abeyance are stricter than ever. To be environmentally adaptive is now full force. It includes a process that places the importance of caring for the environment.

Areas of concern

• Gas emissions
• Fuel use to protect landforms and water forms.
• Use of renewable energy.
• Protection of wildlife that has continuously grown extinct.
• Regulations attached to corporations to have environmental health and safety acts
• Work standards to protect corporate workers and the environment immediate to them
• Management practices by placing a new importance on the environment.
• The presence of asbestos and other harmful materials in buildings

Signs of Greening

The use of renewable fuel as against fossil fuel turns so widely held. It is now adapted globally The widespread use of renewable energy in the use of solar and wind energy is now passionately adapted as evidenced in the following:

• India, who runs its major airport, via solar energy claiming to be the first of its kind in the world. Cochin International Airport, now operational owns 46,000 solar panels generating a 2 MW energy enough to power its entire area. It creates more energy than what the facility necessitates. The excess is fuelled back to other state projects as conserved energy. It projects to a reduce CO2reduction in its emission.
• Hospital Universitaire ide MIrebalai

Based in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world the hospital runs on pure solar energy. It looks after it as It continuously takes a shot to recover. The country has faced devastation more in the flooding and earthquake in the recent years. With over ten million population only 20% has electricity. The renewable energy based hospital was made possible through worldwide contribution to help Haiti recover.

While we are on hospitals there is also quite a few hospitals that require asbestos removal Perth WA however it is very expensive and can require the shutdown of parts of the hospital, which deters administrators from doing it.

• The McCoy Solar Energy in California- Situated in Riverside, it will host the world’s largest solar power plant when completed in a year or so. It is expected to power over 225.00 homes

Countries have likewise heeded the corporate responsibility as shown in the wise use of wind turbine in Among them are China, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Brazil Denmark, among a few.

Corporate entities take on:

Corporations have the responsibility to care for the environment because they are the direct handlers of materials that are deemed destructive to the environment. The need to answer the problem is very evident in the use of recyclable materials now common among store counters: recyclable plastic soda container, solar powered phone chargers, solar light dependent printers, home and garden sun-powered lights, solar spas occupy a wide list in the offerings. To give incentives to the use alternative fuel., government institutions also take a fraction of the cost to install solar panels to homes. With the above list, corporations now use products that attract consumers to be environmentally conscious.

The use of advertising is emphasizing an ecological footprint via packaging. Ads and Slogans are the most effective methods corporation have been using to heed the call for environmental consciousness.

As the turn of corporate business approaches to consumer preferences gears to an internet enterprise, the growth of traditional businesses continuously is strong. It is evidenced by the earnings this traditionally owned corporation collect annually. They ay are not out in competition with the web-based businesses composed mainly of small home based businesses. Ithe web-based approaches for these traditional businesses are an expansion that makes them more patronized in the long run. Taking corporate responsibility into action, they, therefore, have the more responsibilities towards the environment.

Implications of growth and the environment

Since the corporations are well-patronized, the need to be morally responsible for the task of protecting the environment is mandatory. Sorting out their consumer offerings will point to a specific challenge towards environmentally friendly practices in their business. It may need an overhaul in the use of materials that may affect the products, popularity among consumers. They might need to find leverage somewhere as the products get introduced back to the market.

The corporate sector calls the shots

Aggressively, some of the above mentioned corporations are involved in making the environment clean and healthy by the following actions:

• Walmart has partnered with seeds suppliers of about 700 retailers that stream seeds, crop protection, and fertilizers products to farmers who grow edibles for the store. These products will aim at reducing soil wastes and be environmentally friendly. It has also encouraged the consumers to eat healthier by introducing It’s “Great for You” campaign. It reduces the salt content by 13% and the sugar content of 10%. It makes them a good partner in educating consumers about the need to stay healthy.
•  British Petroleum is noted to be the most sustainable fuel friendly among the top corporations. Adopting the slogan “Beyond Petroleum”, it takes serious concern on the oil wastes in the diggings it has embarked on. The accident of oil spill it has caused in the Gulf is till being looked after on its fifth year. To take the cudgels, it has contributed a big amount in the support of developing the quest for alternative fuels like solar, wind, biofuel and hydrogen fuels. It publicly admits the merits of curbing climate change. Similarly, it is actively working on the improvement of its ecological approach.
• Toyota Motors, the largest corporation in the manufacture of cars and car allied products has taken the call drastically. One company in the Bluegrass dates (Kentucky) is acting actively. From a local landfill, the company is converting methane to renewable power used as electricity in its Georgetown plant. It will lessen the effects of landfill gas that is damaging lands and waters in the area. An aftermath of the project is a cleaner air due to less methane contamination from the landfills. The area is now enjoying its merits that started early in 2015.

The big corporations who earn a lot from consumers have the full responsibility to care for the environment. It is showed in their actions to lessen the footprint of carbon in the way they manufacture their products.

 

What exactly is corporate social responsibility?

Its a notion not very difficult to comprehend and in some groups nevertheless debatable. CSR or corporate social responsibility is the moral, ethical and philanthropic concepts any kind of corporation practices. Therefore the concept would be that the companies with better CSR plans obtain a far better gain in business, possess much more faithful customers and they are generally much more successful. We will make an effort to comprehend precisely how CSR is effective through easy illustrations.

Corporate Social responsibility also consists of how a company deals with their clients, their employees along with other people it deals and works with. If a business has excellent guidelines, its reasonable in transactions with their partners, it offers their buyers the very best services and most of all the people employed in that business are happy and well looked after, the company has a sound Corporate governance.

Now its quite clear within this situation that why a corporate which follows all of those concepts can do much better as compared to any corporation that doesn’t. Would you like to work for or with a person who’s not truthful and fair in transactions? The employees obtaining rewards will not want to quit working there, the customers who get good quality services or products will be faithful and long-term and business partners will not be scared off because of fraudulence.

People are getting really aware and corporate social responsibility not only involves the behaviour of the company with all the persons it is working with but in addition the positive alteration its making on the community it’s working in and also the influence its having on atmosphere. These elements in the corporate social responsibility help make a corporation respected and productive.

If the company is functioning for the improvement of the environment and community it’ll obviously have a better business yield. Let’s say an organization has a program of which a particular portion of all revenue they generate is going to be utilized in making a school for disadvantaged kids. Individuals will wish to buy from that business because in many ways they will really feel that they will be making contributions for something beneficial and humanitarian.

Now regarding the environment; not everyone is an activist to get a environmentally friendly planet but general population in the planet is starting to be aware of the fact that we have significantly destroyed our world and need to take drastic steps to restore what we’ve forfeited. Steps like using alternative energy and recycling for instance are extremely important. On corporate levels if a corporation is paying attention on what it is doing to the environment, this matters a great deal. An organization that utilizes renewable energy for example is making a constructive effect to the atmosphere. Using solar or wind energy employed to create electricity not just saves lots of fossil fuel consumption but in addition implies the corporation is leaving very little carbon foot print. Exactly the same goes with recycling.