The solution to climate change is not to abandon our use of essential products but to focus on ways we can improve them
Modern technology has done wonders for our professional lives. It's impossible to imagine our workflows without access to computers and the internet, but our new dependence on electrical equipment is also contributing to our carbon footprint. However, advances in new technologies are now helping businesses all around the globe become more energy efficient.
Cloud Storage
The average office worker in the UK is said to print off around 50 sheets of paper each day. While the notion of email and e-documents has started to become mainstream, many employees are encouraged to create physical backups as a means of security. This means that even a small company can start to amass a staggering amount of files very quickly. While 70 per cent of office waste is recyclable, only 7.5 per cent of it reaches a recycling facility. Around 80.6m tonnes of paper enters the UK's waste stream each year, making up almost a quarter of the total UK waste figures.
Switching to a cloud storage solution can vastly cut wasteful spending. 125,000 sheets of paper can be converted into around 2.5GB of data. Most online storage plans for businesses start at a minimum 1TB so even readily expanding business should be able to store its data without a problem. If you'd still like to have paper backups of important documents for archival purposes, consider storing them offsite. Spreading your data across multiple locations is actually much safer than having them in a centralised location as it eliminates the risk of everything being damaged by a single accident.
Solar Powered Batteries
Electric car manufacturer Tesla plans host a conference on April 30th detailing its future plans. Unlike the company's last October conference where it unveiled its new Tesla Model S, CEO Elon Musk revealed in a tweet that the company will announce a "major new Tesla product line" that is not a car. The company has been long-rumoured to be using technology sourced from sister company SolarCity to create solar powered batteries that will be able to power both homes and businesses. The Verge stated that this solution could help state power grids remain balanced and further cut bills by 20-30 per cent for some customers. In fact, some commercial buildings have already begun testing this technology, including around 300 homes in California and 11 Walmart locations according to a report by Bloomberg.
A study published by the Nature Climate Change journal on the cost of battery packs for electric vehicles between 2007-20014 found that the average price of batteries declined by 14 per cent. Tesla is considered to be at the forefront of this new market, and the company will be hoping it can recreate its success in the automotive market in the business and consumer space.
The solution to climate change is of course not to abandon the use of products that have become essential parts of our lives, but to focus on ways we can improve them. If cloud storage and solar powered batteries can do this, it could have ground-breaking effects on the way businesses operate.
