Three Unique Ways Self-Storage Facilities Can Help The Environment
Posted on: 7 December 2015
As an environmentally responsible customer, your choice to patronize green businesses means you'll need to be on the lookout for certain signs. General signs that a business is environmentally friendly include things like solar panels on the roof, recycling bins and compost receptacles by all the trash cans, and sustainable lighting. But businesses can also streamline their environmental impact by using techniques specific to the industry and niche they operate in. Here are three things a self-storage business may choose to do to leverage its unique opportunities to help the environment.
1. Promoting non-climate-controlled units
Some types of belongings, such as antique books and musical instruments, will always require climate controlled storage. But in a facility that offers both climate-controlled and non-climate-controlled units, customers who have less sensitive belongings (for example, dishes going into storage during a move) can make a difference in their environmental impact by choosing the non-controlled options. These don't take as much energy to maintain, and if the possibilities of non-climate-controlled storage were better understood throughout the country, storage could have significantly less environmental impact. For this reason, self-storage businesses are in a unique position to offer this more earth-friendly option and educate their customers on the opportunities it provides.
2. Facilitating re-use and donations
By providing a drop-off room for unwanted items that will then be donated to charity, a storage facility can make it much more convenient for people to donate old belongings. This allows people to feel good about themselves while helping charitable causes and continuing the circulation of perfectly good clothing and other goods. These goods might otherwise end up sitting around for months, eventually getting thrown away all because the owner is too busy to stop by a recycling center. Keeping the items in circulation for further use helps cut down on the need for the manufacture of new items, sometimes from non-renewable resources, and helps keep landfills from filling up so quickly.
3. Educating customers about packing materials and habits
There are a number of ways a storage facility can encourage earth-friendly packing habits. A big one is by asking customers to return boxes after use and then making them available for the next customer. Offering educational posters on earth-friendly packing materials (such as crumpled paper, rolled-up socks, and recyclable packing peanuts) and making some of these packing materials available is another way to increase the likelihood of good packing habits among customers.
As you can see, a self-storage facility has a unique opportunity to encourage customers toward more earth-friendly behaviors. If you see any of these three signs evident in a self-storage facility, you'll know the business is using its influence for the good of the environment. Talk to a storage facility, such as Acorn Self Service Storage, to find out if they implement earth-friendly strategies.
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