The green appeal may work in good times, but when a recession washes half of your business away and leaves money tight, you need a new approach. Fortunately, a green business can also be an efficient, cost-effective business.
Working with Georgia’s Clean Air Campaign, Holgate closed down Green Express’s central Alpharetta office. Out of the gate, that cut the brick-and-mortar overhead of maintenance, heating and cooling — not to mention the hidden costs that accumulate when employees drive to and dress for the office.
“I’m not using as much dry cleaning now because I’m not going into the office in a dry clean shirt every day; I’m working from home,” Holgate says. “We’re just not using nearly the resources that we once were.”
The company made other cuts, too, like going paperless by e-mailing bills instead of printing, labeling and mailing invoices. Everyone is now mobile, with drivers relying on GPS — which cuts down on the fuel wasted by getting lost or taking longer routes. Holgate is also consolidating deliveries, so instead of having three drivers come from different directions to all travel toward, say, Duluth, they’ll drop their packages in Dunwoody, one employee will deliver them all, and they’ll split the ticket.
“Wherever we were using natural resources, we just said, ‘How can we cut it?’” Holgate says. “We try to use more common sense. We just try to do it as efficient as possible. And with the pressures of the economy, it kind of forces you to be frugal where you can, too.”
By making those adjustments across the board, Green Express has become not just more sustainable but more streamlined. That efficiency even transfers over to price — which is, after all, the most critical customer driver.
“With what we’re doing, our price is the same as the competitors,” Holgate says. “The difference is that we’re not putting a bunch of emissions into the environment. So if the price is the same, why not go green? It’s hard not to join in that argument.”
How to reach: Green Express, (770) 394-3131 or www.greendelivers.com
