As many of my current readers know I own and operate a chain of six indoor tanning salons in Pinellas County Florida, that’s right around beautiful Tampa Bay for those of you that don’t know. We recently made the announcement that Extreme Tan and Smoothies is Going Green on our indoor tanning blog, which happens to be growing in popularity btw.
I wanted to take a moment and share 5 Ways Our Small Business is Going Green along with some of additional things that we would like to do before the end of the year to increase our contribution to saving the planet. For over 5 years Extreme Tan and Smoothies has contributed to the community through donations and sponsorship events, now we feel we can make our biggest impact yet by Going Green.
Extreme Tan and Smoothies, Inc. is Going Green
Use Less Paper – by re-introducing The Tan Forum.com as the major form of communication company wide we will reduce our paper usage by over 50% company wide. In addition The Tan Forum message system will be used as an internal system to forward messages between associates and each of our six locations.
Reduce Waste – beginning November 7, 2009 Extreme Tan and Smoothies will no longer use fax machines as a main source of communication. Typical fax documents that would be sent to the main office via fax will now be picked up with daily paperwork or communicated through The Tan Forum.
Recycle – Extreme Tan and Smoothies has already began using Recyclable hand soaps with fixed hand soap dispensers installed in all locations., we will also be replacing our non-biodegradable smoothie cups with smoothie cups that can be recycled.
Purchase Biodegradable Office Products – all current office products that can be replaced with biodegradable office products will be replaced no later than December 1, 2009.
Reduce Utility Usage – a little over three months ago Extreme Tan and Smoothies took a big step to reduce unnecessary utility usage company wide. Thermostats at all locations and the Home Office went from 68 degree settings 24hrs a day to 78 degree settings during hours of operation only. We reduced our a/c usage by over 500 hours per week and an astounding 28,000 hours per year.
Additional Areas We Are Currently Looking to Go Green:
* Recycling Old Computers and Monitors
* Reducing Printer Ink Usage or Eliminating it Completely
* Reducing Fuel Usage on Company Vehicles
* Energy Efficient Bulbs for Overhead Lighting
* Replacing Current Smoothie products with Organic products
I will continue to post new information about additional things we are doing in our small business to save the planet and show our support for the Green movement, if you would like to stay up to date on my latest posts subscribe to my rss feed.
Cole Stan (2)
KyAus @ Those.Tips (2)
SafariDave (2)
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Great to see you doing your part for all of us to have a better environment bro. Good job !
Roseli A. Bakar´s last blog ..Setting Up Facebook Fan Pages and Groups
@Roseli A. Bakar, thank you bro. If we can make a difference we should.
I wish more companies would take steps like that.
Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee´s last blog ..Poll: Do You Like Starbucks VIA?
@Mike from Daily Shot Of Coffee, it takes effort and patience as well as a tremendous amount of creativity but just about any business can make changes to Go Green.
It’s amazing how much you are saving on the utility, never realized what a huge difference a few degrees could make. You are doing a great thing and saving some money in the process, can’t go wrong there
@Alan @ Glass Pipes, with Progress Energy constantly cracking customers for rate increases around here we really don’t have a choice especially with the amount of meters that we have.
my favorite post by far
@Eggs, thank you. Please share it.
That’s cool John, a great initiative taken here. Replacing old computers and monitors is a good idea as traditional CRT monitor consumes more than newer LCD monitors. It’ becoming more important now a days to consider our duty towards environment. Not just the companies, but we also must take into account going green on our daily basis
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@Nehh, all very good points. We already made the switch to all LCD monitors from traditional CRT monitors. Thats an excellent tip I should have included in the post, thank you.
Great Job! I am going green somewhat at my business also, but we are going green to help the bottom line. The pet industry is in a definite downswing at the moment. We have set are thermostats at 77 during the day and bumped up to 80 at night. I am the process of canceling my Fax line to move to MyFax.com to save both paper and CASH, this is saving me over $50 per month -plus way less paper useage. Everyone should look into this service. Make today a Super Safari Day.
@SafariDave, such an excellent point Dave. So many people instantly say to me how expensive it is to Go Green, I disagree. I think there is tremendous savings opp when you look at the reduction in paper and ink alone, we are in the final process of removing all fax machines, copy machines and printers at each location.
The savings in paper and ink are huge.
GREEN is the way to save Green, plus it looks good when you promote it properly. Gt=reat Job John. Make it a Super Safari Day.
@SafariDave, thank you Dave I appreciate it.
Going Green is sweeping the nation. It seems that more and more businesses are going to make the switch to put the health of the earth before, or at least in line, with profits. I’m glad you posted this, it will help others to think about the responsible thing to do.
Jess
hey good job man. Keep it up, i appreciate and thank all people who try to save the environment some way or another.
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Hi Extreme John. I live in Missouri, and some of the jobs that I’ve worked at, it is simply staggering how much paper is wasted. I’m not going to specifically name any companies, but the waste was not necessary at all, and could have easily been fixed with either doing fewer printoffs and moving to electronic communication, or cutting down on paper products.
I mention where I live, because I think that’s part of it. People around here don’t care that much, and some get downright hostile if you so much as bring it up. I just can’t think of any reason not try to reduce company waste, but I guess some people are dead set in their ways…
Trey – Swollen Thumb Entertainment´s last blog ..Treat Your Career Like You Would A Child
@Trey – Swollen Thumb Entertainment, thats another thing that pisses me off. How can people be so pissy or against doing something that MIGHT help a situation that is obviously out of control.
Hope more CEO read this, going green also means saving
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wouldn’t it be better to scan the document across instead of using fax or deliver the hard copy? Just need to add password so that the right person can open it.
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@scheng1, another great option. Dave also mentioned an excellent digital fax service above that we are going to try as well.
It’s so cool that you guys care for the environment. I wish I could reduce paper use but it’s almost impossible in my business. At least I try to turn off all the lights that aren’t been used.
@Asswass, every little bit counts.
Adgusting the AC is a big one, living in ahot climate as well many business asume that when a patron walks in we wnat to freeze our buns off. That is not the case, setting the thremostat to a normal Spring Day temp is all it takes to make a custmoer happy and to keep them in your store shopping longer.
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@Ms. Freeman, the one challenge that it creates is that it causes our stand-up tanning booths to run hotter, we have had to make some a/c and venting changes to compensate for the heat increase because of safety reasons.
Another thing that stinks about it is that here in Florida it gets mega hot around 3pm, if we don’t jump start the AC units they can keep up in the later hours.
One challenge at a time though.
Great to see something like a tanning salon doing its share to help save the planet. I am pretty sure most of your customers will appreciate your work. Keep it up John.
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@MichaelR, we really even haven’t taken the correct steps to inform out customers that we are Going Green, we are taking it one step at a time to make sure we can sustain the process effectively.
These are great tips that almost any business can utilize. Especially cutting down on paper – my office communicates primarily by email, Yahoo Messenger and through system updates on our internal network to use the least amount of paper as possible. Plus it’s much easier to find things that way as well. Props to you for going green!
@Maria @ Hot Tanning Beds, thats great to hear. So many companies don’t take advantage of the internet and utilizing it’s abilities to reduce paper usage and they should.
I like what I am seeing on your site
this is one thing that I don’t expect from a guy wearing that dress heheh!
good start!
thanks for inspiring us.
andrew@small business resources/small business ideas´s last blog ..Nov 8, Ms Small Businesses Reciprocal Link Exchange
Great ideas here for going green. To much uneccesary waste of paper each day
alisa@governmentgrants´s last blog ..Welcome To Government Grant US
Here’s another one (you may already know this and be doing it) Turning your computers off at night will save about $28 per computer per year in electricity. Plus you do not have the a/c running to compensate for the heat the computer puts off. Plus you would think that the computer would last longer.
Keith@Norman Rockwell Art´s last blog ..Nov 29, Santa’s Workshop by Norman Rockwell from 12/14/1922 Clintonville Gazette
I really appreciate these steps to make this planet a better place and now every one should think and act like this.
It takes effort thats for sure, and patience in a lot of cases because your so use to using the same tools on a daily basis.
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