Small firms can save the environment and become more profitable if they are environmentally conscious, eco-experts have claimed.

Small firms can save the environment and become more profitable if they are environmentally conscious, eco-experts have claimed.

According to Envirowise, an environmental business specialist, small firms only have to make minor and inexpensive changes to their administration to become more eco-friendly.

Commenting on ways to be kinder on the surroundings, a spokesman for the firm says: ‘Up to 85 per cent of environmental initiatives that businesses can undertake actually do not cost anything at all.’

He continues: ‘Some initiatives do have costs and if they do, you may want to look at payback periods. But in general it makes good business sense because the amount of waste you are reducing and the raw materials that you save translate to money saved, which goes straight to your bottom line.’

Envirowise claims that businesses are increasingly more willing to accept their environmental responsibilities. In 1994 only 20 per cent saw the link between green performance and profitability, today that figure stands at 50 per cent.