The question may seem like an oxymoron: after all, being a solar company should automatically make your business “green” enough, right? But there is far more that goes into being a sustainable and environmentally-friendly operation.
If you want to
ensure that your brand is doing everything it can to be responsibly green, you
may need to make a few changes to your practices.
Choosing
Green Product Manufacturing and Sourcing
While solar panels themselves may be helpful in the fight for sustainability, making them and distributing them to installers often isn’t.
Manufacturing solar panels can be a resource-intensive process. It requires significant amounts of water, electricity, and caustic chemicals, resulting in a major output of greenhouse gases. Contractors can select the cleanest manufacturers by only working with ones who maintain supply chain transparency and abide by SEIA’s Traceability Protocol. Manufacturers who use this protocol are committed to sourcing from material suppliers that can verify where their components come from and whether or not they are subject to regular, independent audits.
Transportation of
solar modules can be yet another weakness in your supply chain. Importing
panels from Asia or other far-off nations incurs hefty costs for freight
shipping. Switching to American suppliers has the potential to sharply offset
the amount of resources needed to get your inventory to your door.
Instating
Sustainable Services and Operation Protocols
Becoming a greener solar business isn’t limited to the products themselves, it should also extend to how your company runs every day. Contractors that have committed to a sustainable work philosophy are taking whatever measures they can to reduce the resources needed to conduct their business.
This includes switching to electric or bio-fueled company vehicles, embracing virtual meetings/inspections whenever possible, and even purchasing carbon offsets when other options just aren’t feasible. Even small changes like recycling product packaging can decrease a company’s carbon footprint.
Contractors are
also enhancing their sustainability by offering customers recycling services.
Since consumers can’t easily recycle their old solar panels, much of that
equipment goes to waste year after year, putting a serious damper on the
benefits produced during the equipment’s lifetime. Expanding services to
include recycling can ensure that this waste is snuffed out.
Generate
Leads More Efficiently with a Solar
Marketing Company
Finally, the lead generation process is one that can be a big drain on your brand’s greenness. Old-fashioned practices like door-knocking, flyer distribution, and physical advertisements require fuel for distribution, and other resources for material creation.
Even in the case of digital advertisements and marketing campaigns, there is the cost of electricity and labor needed to produce and manage those digital assets and the leads that result. Given that many solar teams are already stretched thin, these costs can be inflated simply due to inefficiency.
Outsourcing lead
generation to a solar marketing
company can take a serious load off your shoulders. Not only will it
help your firm avoid wasting resources in marketing, it will also result in a
more streamlined sales process. You can focus your efforts on leads that have
been screened and verified as worthwhile customers, avoiding unnecessary site
visits and meetings with homeowners who aren’t actually ready to go solar.
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