Ready to take the plunge and make some easy, low-cost changes to make your business green and save money in the process? Statistics show that 90 percent of the world's information is still on paper so reducing our dependency on paper would be a start. But there are a host of quick, easy and money-saving tips that are not only great for our budgets, but the earth as well.
 
Here are 15 tips on what independent retailers can do right now to operate a greener business, including taming that paper monster:

Tame the Paper Monster

E-mail Receipts. Offer to e-mail receipts to your customers to eliminate paper, says Susanne Sainato of Shop Metro Now in Metropolis, Illinois.

Embrace Electronic Files. Switch to keeping electronic copies or files, and as an added benefit, you save on office real estate from having to load up on filing cabinets, says Louis Hayner, executive vice president and chief sales officer for WVT Communications Group.

Access Electronic Files Faster. Don’t waste time searching through those PDFs to find the right document. Using ABBYY FineReaderOnline.com helps reduce paper, yet preserves the searchable and editable elements needed in any document, which will save time, money, paper and storage space. Perfect for saving catalogs, contracts and employee documents.

Consider Your Technology Needs

Dispose of Tech Products Safely. All businesses are overwhelmed with an abundance of old computers, printers, copy machines, etc. All Green Electronics Recycling will dismantle, remove, refurbish if necessary, and prepare it for resale, says Founder Arman Sadeghi. Once an item is sold, All Green pays you 70 percent of the net revenue. If your items are not sold, All Green will absorb all costs and responsibly scrap the materials at no cost to you. The company offers pickup services as well as hundreds of convenient drop-off locations.

Switch to a Duplexing (two-sided) Printer. Shel Horowitz, author of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet, cut his paper costs 40 percent by making this simple change.

Use Eco-fonts. Eco-fonts put small holes within the typeface, which reduces the amount of ink used to produce the image without sacrificing legibility. Downloading free font types and replacing your current font choice can save between 25 and 40 percent of your ink or toner.

To Bag or Not to Bag?

Reduce Bag Use. Have cashiers ask customers whether they need a bag, rather than automatically assuming they do and just placing items in a bag, says Kiai Kim who is creating a not-for-profit company called Care For Earth in Brooklyn, New York. “Simply changing the word ‘want’ to ‘need’ will encourage people to think more about their habits and help them see that they can do something to help cut down on unnecessary waste," she notes. She also recommends offering reusable bags for sale at the counter.

Use Branded Reusable Bags. If customers want a bag, consider providing reusable bags with a logo instead of paper bags, recommends Molly Deas, academic director at The Art Institute of Portland Interior Design, which offers a minor in Sustainability. “Consumers will use the reusable bag for future shopping, and this provides a marketing opportunity for the retailer,” says Deas. “Additionally, it cuts down on plastic or paper bag consumption.”

Decor Savings

Find Furniture for Pennies on the Dollar. Sure, there is CraigsList and Ebay, but most retailers may not know that you can purchase high-end furniture from hotel liquidators like Fort Pitt Hotel Furniture Liquidators. Many of the pieces are nearly perfect since higher-end hotels remodel regularly. But even if a pieces needs to be updated, a quick paint job or reupholstering it might do the trip.

Canoodle a Local Furniture Shop and Florist. Ask a fellow furniture retailer to lend you some furniture stock, perhaps last year’s styles, and sell the pieces on consignment. Additionally, ask a local florist to provide you with a small floral arrangement for your cash wrap and allow her to include her business cards or brochures. You’ll get free displays, and you’re helping your fellow merchants. Ask those merchants to include a small display in their stores, too, to cross-merchandise and market your business as well.

Make Changes Inside and Out

Insulate. If you can make changes to your property, insulate outside-wall outlets and switch plates with foam insulating pads (usually given away by your utility company if you get an energy audit or very cheap at the hardware store) and fill any unused outlets on outside walls with baby-safety outlet protectors, which are inexpensive, says Horowitz. The foam takes about 1-1/2 minutes per outlet to install, and an outlet protector, about 10 seconds.

Create a Clean Environment Inside. Add floor mats at entrances to keep as much dirt as possible from entering your store says Chuck Lohre, president of Green Cincinnati Education Advocacy.

Build a Garden Inside. Have at least one live plant for every 100 square feet to help clean the air and offset VOCs and CO2, says DeAnna Radaj, owner of Bante Design LLC, an interior design company.

Avoid Disposables. Use washable plates and mugs as well as sponges, cloth napkins and cloth towels instead of paper products, recommends Nadereh Afsharmanesh, director of sustainability for Earth Friendly Products. Take it one step further and use items that you sell on the floor. Rather than offering customers coffee from a disposable cup, hand them a washable mug to walk around—you may make another sale!

Finally… Donate Broken Stuff. It’s inevitable that things will arrive broken or a customer will break something in your shop. Rather than just discarding the remnants, donate them to a local artist! Robin Jones, manager at Global Gifts in Indianapolis, donates her broken bits (mostly pottery) to a local artist who uses them for big public sculptures she makes with local school kids.

Megy Karydes is a professional freelance writer who covers marketing and business topics for both consumer and trade magazines. Find her at KarydesConsulting.com.