Sasha Aparicio
Copywriter - Guatamala
Collaboration is King: 4 Ways to Help Your Business and the Planet
Over the last 30 years, society has made huge strides towards making business communications much friendlier to the planet. It’s hard to imagine a world without the internet, isn’t it?
However, most companies still haven’t fully integrated tools and services that exist that can help lower their carbon footprint and save their business money and time. In fact, in some ways, some companies haven’t changed their communication systems or business partnerships much in those 30 years.
Ultimately, thanks to tools that exist today, you can find even experts that will help reach your business goals while also sticking to ethical business practices and helping to protect the environment.
At Saint Associates, we are experts in helping businesses integrate eco-conscious, ethical marketing into their key strategy. Here, we share some of the collaboration tools we have found essential and practical, in the process of helping your business lower its environmental impact whilst maximizing on global business relationships.
As an example, let’s take a look at these two scenarios:
Scenario 1:
It’s 1990 – Company-X is excited that their entrepreneurial endeavor is finally taking off.
Based in Loc Angeles, they have come up with an innovative computer-based platform to track inventory across retail locations that would provide a more streamlined inventory process.
After attending dozens of conferences to talk to potential clients, printing out hundreds of letters to send out to retail and distribution centers across the country, and, when they could afford it, flying all over the US to set up in-person pitches, Company-X has finally gotten a bite from a mid-sized company based in London. It is excited about the prospect, but they know what that means. They’ll be spending lots of money on traveling back and forth to London and making long-distance phone calls. This will put a dampener on her bottom line and extend the time it takes to close deals and make decisions.
Back in 1990, there wasn’t much focus on the ecological impact of flying, but, Company-X’s carbon footprint will undoubtedly skyrocket as they gain more international clients.
Now, fast-forward 30 years later.
It’s 2020, and Company-X has been in the business for almost 30 years. The company now offers a range of technology platforms to streamline business’ product and service offerings. They are now aware of the carbon footprint the company has made in the past, and are committed to go Carbon Neutral and get the PAS 2050 certification.
After an initial assessment, Company-X learned that air travel and employee commuting make up over 50% of her company’s carbon emissions. With so many tech-based collaboration and communications offerings, they are committed to reducing the company’s carbon emissions.
Company-X is wondering, what are some key actions they can take to do so? Are there companies they can collaborate with that can help her achieve those goals? In terms of marketing, which make up most of their operation costs, can they make greener choices?
Scenario 2:
Brand-Z was started in 2016 as a small start-up producing eco-friendly fashion products. They have worked hard for years to streamline and refine their product and processes.
They are very proud to be able to share this with their customers on social media and in-bound marketing tools. However, in the back of Brand-Z’s mind, they know that although they are focused on reducing their carbon footprint, the companies they use to facilitate their company do not.
The marketing company they use is based in another country and regularly fly out to maintain their business relationship. Whilst this may seem like the norm, it has a passive negative effect on their carbon footprint, and also their budget. After all, those flights come out of their marketing spend too.
Surely a company that positions itself as ‘eco-friendly’ should not only look at their immediate but also their secondary footprint?
4 Ways to Use Collaboration Tools to Boost Your Business and Help the Planet
1. Taking Networking Online
Conferences and high-street stores are no longer the only way to make new business contacts or showcase your business’ services or products. You won’t have to wait to be introduced face-to-face to your friend’s friend who can help you out with that programming issue. At Saint Associates, we are experts in the tools that allow you to reach out to customers and clients with whom you might be able to connect with, no matter what country you are in.
This means drastically reducing your carbon footprint by cutting out unnecessary business trips. It also means that you can outsource some key elements of your business to experts in the field who will also help you have a greener, more ethical focus.
Strategic digital campaigns help you actively target potential customers, clients, partners, and future collaborators. Online forums allow you to showcase what you know and what your business can do. If you pair an online networking strategy with putting effective social network platforms to work, you can position yourself as a “guru” in your area, your target market will seek you out.
Interested in positioning your brand on social media or a digital marketing campaign? Saint Associates can help you make the most of marketing platforms for your specific brand’s needs.
2. Collaboration Tools and Online Offices
Gone are the days where Microsoft Project was the only project management tool out there.
Today, project management meets crowdsourcing and collaborations with innovative web-based tools like Trello, Asana, and Monday.com. You can assign and track tasks, brainstorm, discuss progress, and much more.
We can’t leave out the power of other cloud-based tools like Google Docs and Google Sheets, HackPad by DropBox, and Quip. These allow you to see progress and comment in real-time without being in the same room.
Collaboration tools also help you to integrate other companies into your overall strategy, as long as the company is well-versed in these collaboration tools. Saint Associates knows very well how these tools can help to reduce the carbon footprint of the company and marketing strategies in general, because we use them ourselves.
3. Meeting Platforms
One of the biggest revelations in online communications was taking what seemed like something out of the Jetsons to homes and businesses: video calling. Multi-way video platforms, like Skype, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, and Zoom, allow for staff meetings, interviews, client pitches, and more.
While the use of these platforms isn’t zero-carbon, they can be drastically more eco-efficient in multiple ways as well as saving money. They reduce the need for flying for meetings, making long commutes, and printing out documents and briefs that most people will glance at once or twice. They also open the opportunity for decentralized working. We’ll discuss this in the next point.
These meeting platforms open limitless possibilities in terms of who you want to work with. Rather than choosing from the only two local marketing agencies, you can look across borders and time zones for the best of the best.
For example, Company-X, who wants to grow their business in a green way, can contract Saint Associates to develop and carry out a marketing strategy for the business that will integrate low or zero-carbon tools and even offer ways to make your company even greener. Company-X isn’t limited by the marketing companies that are nearby and don’t necessarily understand their vision.
4. De-Centralized Working
In today’s globalized world, you don’t need to depend only on local talent to meet your business needs. A study carried out by Global Workplace Analytics showed that remote working has from 140% since 2005. This trend is likely to rise significantly with the simultaneous growth of the focus on well-being in the workplace.
A growing workforce of people who have experience in working remotely means that you don’t need to train people to use collaboration tools, and you can reduce office space expenses. Team members skip the commute and office admin issues and focus on the work at hand.
It also means you don’t need to limit yourself to local talent. You can find the right team or the right service for your company with no limits to their geographic location.
As a green plus, you can largely eliminate the aspect of your carbon footprint generated by commuting.
Conclusion
Through effective collaboration that takes advantage of today’s technology and tools, better ideas are brought to the table, your business reduces costs, and your carbon footprint is significantly reduced.
At Saint Associates, we are committed to helping our clients have a more ethical business model through effective marketing practices. Not only can we take advantage of the tools mentioned above to work together, but we can also help you navigate them to take advantage of the positive impact they can have on your business in terms of its bottom line and the environment.
By taking advantage of collaboration tools, your business becomes more effective, and reduce your impact on the planet while you are at it.
Do you want to make your marketing more affective and greener? By choosing to work with Saint Associates, your marketing will be better for the environment and for your business. All of the tips mentioned above are essential to our business model. Remote work, taking advantage of collaboration tools and online meeting tools, and networking almost exclusively online is how we work.
If you want to learn more about the marketing services we offer in terms of brand design, strategic advertising, digital and social media marketing, media planning and more, visit our website at saintassociates.com and get in touch.
