Is your business thinking about ways that it can minimize its impact on the environment? Making changes to your warehouse might be a great place to start if you’re determined to make a big difference quickly. Fortunately, there are a few very simple upgrades you can make in your warehouse and the way it runs if you want to be more eco-friendly. 

 

What can you do to improve your warehouse and make it better for the environment? Here are six simple tips to help you get started! 

Invest in Better Lighting

One of the simplest changes you can make in your warehouse to both lower your overall costs and decrease your carbon footprint is to switch your lighting to a more eco-friendly solution: Ditch the traditional or fluorescent light bulbs that are currently powering your warehouse. Instead, you should be seeking LED options. These types of LED bulbs will last you longer than traditional lighting, which will save you money when it comes to purchasing new materials every few months. 

 

And that’s not the only way they’ll save you money; they’re also a lot more energy-efficient, allowing you to shave costs off your monthly electric bills. This is an all-around win for reducing your impact on the environment as a whole. 

Recycle Now

How often do you recycle right now? Warehouses often go through tremendous amounts of trash but don’t spend much time thinking about where it all goes. Consider how much cardboard, paper, and packing supplies you go through each day, each week, and each year. Chances are that you’re sending hundreds of pounds of these items to landfills annually, but you could minimize this impact on the environment by executing a recycling overhaul. 

 

Of course, recycling can also be done on materials that are already in your warehouse. Many of these items can be repurposed and given a second life instead of other companies having to manufacture new ones. For example, you can repack old cardboard boxes and reuse packing paper to protect fragile objects. 

Change the Roof

Think about how the sun beats down on your warehouse day after day. By the height of the afternoon, you might start to notice that your warehouse is feeling pretty toasty because the roof has absorbed the heat from the sun. It might seem like this is unavoidable, but there is a solution.

 

While most standard warehouse roofs are dark in color, you can reverse the effect of the sun by covering them with bright and reflective paint. Instead of absorbing the heat from the sun, you can reflect it back into the sky and keep your warehouse cooler. This makes it more comfortable for your employees, and it also reduces your energy usage during those intense summer months. 

Install a Fan

Trying to cool down your warehouse during harsh Albuquerque summers is downright difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. You can minimize your cooling costs and become more eco-friendly with one swift move: Installing a destratification fan. This will help your warehouse distribute cool air more evenly and create a more balanced temperature throughout the space. 

 

Your employees will thank you for eliminating the hot and cold spots that can sometimes happen in a drafty warehouse. Your wallet will thank you for minimizing how much your air conditioning unit has to run to keep the warehouse cool. 

Upgrade to Energy-Efficient Equipment

Many warehouses run on gas-powered equipment that has a tremendous impact on the environment. Not to mention, with the rising fuel costs, it can be expensive to maintain this type of equipment. Instead, you can minimize your out-of-pocket costs and do something better for the environment by switching to more energy-efficient equipment that’s powered by electricity instead. 

 

Battery-powered forklifts are one of the biggest considerations when it comes to upgrading equipment this way, and you won’t be sacrificing any power to do so. While you may have to invest a little money up front to fund the cost of your new equipment and the training of your employees, it’s worth it in the long run. 

Insulate the Building

While a brightly-coated roof and a fan can help keep temperatures consistent in your warehouse, there is one more issue that you might want to consider tackling. Proper insulation keeps warehouses more constant in temperature instead of allowing your heating and cooling to escape into the great outdoors. Upgrading or installing insulation helps keep the comfortable air inside the warehouse. 

 

More than that, it also reduces the wear and tear on your air conditioner or heating system. It won’t have to work as hard if most of the cool or warm air it produces stays inside the warehouse. In turn, this reduces your overall heating and cooling costs as well, making it a great investment for your bottom line and the environment. 

Improving Your Warehouse

If you’re determined to help your warehouse become more energy-efficient, it’s time to start thinking through the first major changes you want to make. An eco-friendly warehouse can be a great business tactic; it can lower your bottom line, and allow you to do your part for the environment to minimize any negative effects of the business. 

Dub-L-EE is here to help you implement some of these changes.  We have the Albuquerque commercial construction experience that you’ll need to start minimizing your environmental footprint!