5 B2B Tools to Promote Corporate Level Reusability & Zero Waste

Executives worldwide have been facing numerous challenges, including economic instability, geopolitical strife, supply chain interruptions, and talent scarcity, among other difficulties. Notwithstanding these challenges, climate change remains a critical concern for CxOs, per a recent Deloitte Survey Report. Although most CxOs agree that it is possible for the world to achieve global economic growth while meeting climate change targets, a gap persists between the actions and the impact of organizations. They tend to be slow in implementing impactful measures that embed sustainability into their core strategies, operations, and cultures.

 

Many c-suite consider climate change one of the most pressing issues for their organizations, ranking it in the top three, ahead of seven other concerns, including competition for talent, supply chain obstacles, and innovation. Only economic outlook ranked marginally higher. Furthermore, 61% of them believe that climate change will have a high or very high impact on their organizations' operations and strategies in the next three years. About 75% reported that they had increased their sustainability investments over the past year, with almost 20% saying they had increased them significantly.

 

Despite being highly concerned about climate change, c-suite executives remain optimistic about taking on climate action. According to the Deloitte survey, 62% of CxOs feel concerned about climate change all or most of the time. Almost all respondents indicated that climate change had adversely affected their companies in some way over the past year, and 82% of CxOs had been affected personally. Nevertheless, 78% of them feel somewhat or extremely optimistic that the world will take adequate measures to avoid the most severe effects of climate change.

 

As leading organizations become more environmentally action-driven, it's important for these companies to take measurable steps to reduce their impact on the environment. Here are five useful B2B tools for lowering carbon emissions through reuse, food waste reduction, and elimination of single-use bottled water.

 

Copia for reducing food waste & hunger

Copia is an end-to-end solution that helps businesses reduce their carbon footprint and food waste while also addressing hunger. Businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and corporate cafeterias, use Copia's technology to understand overproduction trends and reduce surplus over time. They can use Copia's mobile app to schedule pickups of their surplus food, and Copia's donation delivery drivers will safely pick up the excess food and deliver it to local nonprofit recipients.

 

Copia's dashboard provides businesses with real-time data and actionable insights to help them understand food surplus trends and reduce over-purchasing and overproduction. By reducing food waste at the source, businesses can save thousands of dollars annually. Copia's service is reliable and scalable and can serve as a single food recovery partner across a business's portfolio, big or small.

 

Partnering with Copia not only reduces food waste and benefits the community, but it also offers businesses significant tax savings through Copia's automated and audit-proof tax deduction service. Additionally, Copia provides materials to help businesses share their community impact, demonstrating their forward-thinking approach.

 

The B2B Excess Materials Exchange (EME) 

The B2B Excess Materials Exchange helps businesses adopt reuse by providing tools and resources to measure and improve their circular performance. The platform consists of three main components:

A circularity assessment tool: This tool allows businesses to evaluate their current circular performance and identify areas for improvement. The assessment covers areas such as material efficiency, product design, and waste reduction.

A knowledge center: The knowledge center provides businesses with resources and best practices for adopting circular business models. This includes case studies, guides, and tools for implementing circular strategies.

A community: The platform also includes a community of circular economy experts and practitioners. Businesses can connect with these experts and share best practices and ideas.

 

Overall, the platform helps businesses adopt reuse by providing them with the tools, resources, and community support they need to transition to circular business models. 

 

Green Standards - Reusable Office Furniture

Green Standards is a North American business that helps corporations manage their surplus office furniture by reselling, donating, or recycling it. The company aims to prevent valuable resources from going to waste while also creating a positive environmental and social impact. Green Standards has built a network of resellers, strategic recyclers, and over 17,000 nonprofit partners to ensure clients have the most redistribution options and cost-efficiencies possible. 

 

The company's goal is to change corporations' mindsets to prioritize a circular impact from their office decommission projects rather than paying a fee to send the furniture to landfills. Green Standards has diverted over 70,000 tonnes of workplace furniture and equipment from landfills at a 98.6% diversion rate, offsetting over 171,033 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions. By granting social service organizations access to quality office furniture, Green Standards contributes to building resilient communities by allowing these organizations to reallocate funding towards fair employment wages or serving community needs.

 

SunCrafters upcycled solar panels for commercial building power

SunCrafter offers upcycled solar modules and other components to provide affordable and clean energy on demand. Their solution involves repurposing decommissioned solar modules that are not financially competitive in grid applications and upcycling them into robust plug & play solar generators for essential low-voltage energy access. The company extends the lifetime of solar panels and fosters access to renewable energy while reducing carbon emissions.

SunCrafter's solution can help a business implement reuse while controlling energy costs with solar by providing a more affordable option for accessing clean energy. 

 

By reusing solar panels, the upfront cost of solar power can be lowered, making it more accessible. Additionally, the use of upcycled solar modules can help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and contribute to a circular economy.

 

SunCrafter's urban e-mobility charging stations are also a more sophisticated option that work with the same second-life resources. By using renewable energy to power electric vehicles, businesses can further reduce their carbon footprint while promoting sustainable mobility.

 

PATH improves reuse & refilling to eliminate single-use bottled water

A study by the Pacific Institute found that switching from single-use water bottles to reusable bottles can save individuals and businesses carbon emissions and money in the long run. 

 

PATH is a B2B solution that aims to help companies reduce or eliminate single-use bottled water by providing a co-branding program that makes it attractive and easy to implement. The company's solution is to offer sustainable bottled water packaged in a reusable aluminum bottle. By providing a Partnership to Save the Planet Program, PATH enables companies to offer their employees and customers a sustainable option for bottled water that aligns with their own sustainability goals. Hundreds of big brands and organizations have adopted PATH to help rid their organization of single-use plastic bottles. Some brands on the PATH include Yellowstone National Park, Facebook, Adidas, Lockheed Martin, CVS, RiteAid, and the Sacramento Kings. 

 

PATH's aluminum bottle is designed to be refillable. The company offers refill station installation services to ensure that customers have access to clean and safe drinking water at all times. 

 

PATH is an innovative yet easy-to-adopt sustainability initiative that is cost-effective and encouraging for companies that want to reduce their environmental impact and promote sustainability while offering a high-quality product to their employees and customers.

 

The growing need for measurable corporate programs that reduce carbon

According to a survey by Cone Communications, 87% of consumers said they would purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about, such as sustainability. Companies can improve their reputation and appeal to conscious consumers by promoting reusability and demonstrating a commitment to sustainability.

 

To help companies lower their carbon emissions through reuse, these are five B2B tools to consider. Implementing these tools can help companies take measurable steps toward reducing their impact on the environment and contribute to a more sustainable future.

 

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