Can you save the planet and your bottom line at the same time? A new platform for Australia’s small and medium businesses is taking the friction out of switching to greener options by showing how easy – and cost-saving – it can be.

Case in point: Stitch Bar in the Sydney CBD. Evoking the vintage style found in the late-night diners of New York, this underground cocktail bar is where you go for a whiskey, a hot dog and the vibrant buzz of city life.

But that’s not the only energy that keeps the lights on for Stitch. One of three venues under the House of Pocket hospitality group, run by CEO and founder Karl Schlothauer, Stitch made the switch to a greener energy option that’s saving them $2300 on their annual power bill.

Their sister venue, Pocket Bar in Terrigal on NSW’s Central Coast, has followed suit with savings of nearly $1000.

The savings came as a result of joining Greener for Business, a new Australian platform providing simple solutions that help businesses get greener in ways that are both good for the planet and the hip pocket.

Pocket Bar in Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast. Image: Supplied.

What is Greener for Business?

Greener for Business is a certified B Corp that gives businesses step-by-step action plans to help them save money while reducing emissions in areas like energy, waste, electrification, packaging and logistics. These plans are tailored to specific business needs and focus on ways to unlock savings on the path to net zero.

Founded by former corporate exec turned impact entrepreneur Tom Ferrier, the platform is designed by experts in environmental and behavioural science, and its actions are aligned to the UN’s Race to Zero. The goal is to take sustainability out of the ‘too-hard basket’ and show how it can be the easier choice, and in many cases, the most cost-effective.

To do that, Greener has the backing of big-hitting partners including Origin, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), NAB, Sendle, Appliances Online, Mr Yum, Shopline, Better Packaging Co, and local city councils that have declared a climate emergency including Ku-ring-gai, North Sydney, Willoughby, Yarra and Moonee Valley.

Members get free access to a range of exclusive member offers from partners, as well as providing a central source for all of the available government rebates for going green.

How businesses are saving costs

By providing businesses with a blueprint (or green print, one might say) for reducing emissions, Greener for Business is challenging traditional views that sustainable practices need to be costly, time-consuming and complicated to implement.

“We know small and medium businesses are the backbone of Australia’s economy, but many are also cash-strapped, time-poor, and under a huge amount of pressure just keeping their heads above water,” said Greener’s CEO Ferrier.  “That’s why we’re working hard to help them get greener and save money at the same time.”

At a time when businesses are feeling squeezed by the rising costs of living, the platform shows there are many greener solutions that provide meaningful savings.

One of the quickest changes can be done in minutes. Through their partnership with Origin, Greener for Business gives members access to discounted rates off the reference price on their business’ electricity plan with 100 per cent government-accredited GreenPower included at no extra cost and access to great business rates on rooftop solar with no upfront deposit, helping to remove the associated cost barriers to install.

By doing so, businesses can ensure that all of the energy they use is matched with an equivalent amount of electricity from GreenPower-accredited renewable sources added to the grid on their behalf, helping them to reduce their emissions.

This simple switch to GreenPower is what fuelled Stitch and Pocket Bar’s power savings. To put that in perspective, based on the annual energy consumption for Pocket Bar alone, it’s the equivalent of taking 17 cars off the road in emissions.

Greener for Business CEO and founder Tom Ferrier. Image: Greener.

“Whenever I share with audiences that it is possible to save money and the planet, the response is often disbelief, denial and blatant rejection,” said Ferrier.

“I don’t blame anyone for thinking this way, after all it was a strongly held belief of our entire team until we challenged ourselves to make it a reality. And we challenged ourselves to do so, because we thought that to shift the needle on climate action, we needed to make saving the planet a financial opportunity for people.”

Inner-Brisbane real estate agency Ray White Clayfield is another business seeing the benefits of joining the platform, saving $387 on their annual power bill.

“It’s great to know we’re doing the right thing by the environment and we’re saving money too, so for us it was a no-brainer,” said Ray White Clayfield partner Nick Given.

“The whole signup process was so quick and easy. And electricity isn’t something we really think about day-to-day, so all we’ve done is agree to something that is a really great concept… It’s nice to be a pioneer of it all, and we want to get the whole Ray White Group onto Greener for Business too.”

Nick Given (centre) and his Ray White Clayfield team. Image: Supplied.

More actions to help businesses get greener

Beyond energy, Greener for Business’ other actions range from switching to carbon neutral shipping (there’s a 18 per cent off carbon neutral shipping offer from Sendle) to more environmentally friendly packaging and improving waste management systems.

The cost savings will differ from business to business, from quick wins to higher impact switches. Some examples include:

• Switching to LED lighting, which can save the average small business more than $2300 a year while using 80 per cent less energy than traditional lighting.
• Installing rooftop solar (with no upfront deposit from as little as $155 per month), meaning businesses can start saving big bucks on their electricity bills without the wait.
• Swapping from gas to electric vehicles via an easy monthly subscription model without the upfront costs of buying a new car, which can save businesses up to 40 per cent on servicing costs and up to 70 per cent on fuel costs.

If you’re still not sure…

Think of what customers want. Recent research from Monash Business School found that more than half of Australian shoppers (51 per cent) say sustainability is a key factor in their retail purchases. Almost all of us – 96 per cent of Australians – have engaged in at least one type of sustainable practice in the past three months.

Consumers expect concrete action on climate change that goes beyond the greenwash.

Plus, businesses can’t afford to make hollow claims about environmental credentials. The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) recently found that 57 per cent of businesses they reviewed were making potentially misleading claims about their green practices.

This prompted the government body to publish draft guidance to make sure businesses are being genuine with their claims and the real steps they’re taking.

As Australia looks to halve emissions by 2030, small and medium businesses will play an important role in helping us get there. Let’s get greener.

Sign up to Greener for Business today.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with Greener for Business.