Clean up your act

Clean up your act Article Image

Reducing your carbon footprint with EOFY smart finance asset leasing options

Whether it’s a war on waste, foregoing plastic or trying to shop local, sustainability and environmental issues have gone mainstream.

In fact, moving to embrace sustainability is no longer something that’s nice to do, for many organisations it’s essential if they want to meet the challenges of a changing business landscape.

Australia’s commitment to the Paris climate change conference to reduce our 2005 level of emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 for example, means many businesses need to transform their operations if the nation is to meet this target.

The centrality of environmental concerns to the recent Federal election campaign and the policies of major political parties also highlights the significance of these issues.

What will your organisation change?

As a result, organisations large and small, industry-wide, are looking to invest in some of the many new technologies emerging to help them deal with issues around reducing their carbon footprint and improving their sustainability credentials.

Whether it’s adding smart technologies like LED lighting and sensor doors that reduce air conditioning load or installing sources of renewable energy through solar panels and battery storage, businesses are increasingly embracing technologies to reduce their carbon footprint.

Even Prahran Market – one of Melbourne’s oldest markets – is getting in on the act, introducing a state-of-the-art food waste recycling plant to convert food and fish waste into garden compost. The market has also invested in rain water harvesting technologies that recycle water to service the market’s public amenities.

The cost of sustainability

But innovative technologies like these cost money. Investing in sustainability can require significant upfront expenditure and many organisations do not have excess funding readily available on their balance sheets.

One solution can be to use financing techniques like asset leasing that allow organisations to introduce new technologies without affecting their bottom line. Financing solutions like operating leases can unlock new capital for sustainability initiatives, in turn generating operational savings and reducing the organisation’s carbon footprint.

Whether you are looking to fund assets like lighting and solar systems or new waste management technologies, asset finance can be a great solution for organisations without the necessary free capital on their balance sheet.

To learn more about how you can solve your organisation’s cash flow and capital challenges at the end of the financial year, download our new Maia Financial whitepaper 3 reasons to explore asset finance at EOFY today. It could be the first step in your organisation’s sustainability journey.

Related articles and case studies…