More green for more gold

A Helensburgh retail outlet has significantly reduced operational costs along with their ‘environmental footprint’ by making a number of simple changes in how they run their business.

John and Tracey Noonan from Ambience Boutique applied the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) to identify where and how they could make practical economical and environmental changes to help reduce their carbon emissions in their small business.

They changed their halogen down lights to LCD to light their shop and increased the energy conversion to light from 10% to 98% which saved them up to $400 per year in replacement lights. They also changed their energy supplier to TRUenergy to receive power that is produced by 100% wind and offset their carbon emissions from car use and flights by subscribing to Greenfleet.

John and Tracey recently addressed a Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce meeting to show members how easy it can be to implement everyday practices that are good for both the ‘bottom line’ and the environment. Their advice for a business wanting to get started on reducing their ecological, social and economic impact or ‘triple bottom line’ is simple:

“The first thing is to educate yourself on the issues, think about the impacts you are having and the ways in which you can reduce them,” said John, who has a degree in Environmental Management from the UNSW.

“From a small business point of view you have to be pragmatic about the way you can implement the principles of ESD as every business is going to be different and have different concerns and priorities to balance.”