Market your environmental credentials

Your business can benefit from working with your local community on environmental matters in a number of ways. You can, for example:

• boost local awareness of your business
• raise awareness of your environmental credentials
• attract customers with environmental concerns
• attract new employees from the local vicinity who admire your environmental policies

The options for community involvement are wide ranging and will depend on your business activities and resources. You could consider, for example:

• launching a local campaign to get more people to use their bikes instead of cars
• getting staff to lead a sponsored litter pick wearing company t-shirts
• giving some of your environmentally-friendly products to local schools and charities

You might be able to offer a by-product from the manufacturing of your product to a local organisation that could make use of it. A printing business, for example, might have waste paper that it could give to local playgroups for drawing.

There may be environmental charities that operate in Northern Ireland that you could sponsor or a cause related to your product or service that you could partner with or support.

You could also encourage employees to think of ways to get involved with the local community in ways that benefit the environment and raise awareness of your business. This could also boost employee morale and help them develop additional skills.

Businesses that are good investors in Northern Ireland can gain recognition through awards by organisations such as Business in the Community Northern Ireland.