Many businesses these days like to flag up their environmentally friendly credentials as part of demonstrating corporate social responsibility (CSR), or how green they are.

Many businesses now recycle all re-usable waste, like paper and glass, and use biodegradable packaging. They also try to cut down on paper use by not printing out unessential documents and by communicating as much as possible by email. Other energy savers are remembering to switch off lights and computers when not in use and perhaps encouraging employees to car share.

But there is more that can be done to cut down on energy use and reduce the carbon footprint.

If you have a business that needs to keep paper records of customer and client information, which can be a legal requirement for organisations such as health authorities, residential homes, solicitors, will writers and accountants, the question is how and where are they being stored?

It is not always possible to convert all paper records to a digital version. It can take hours of staff time that might be better focused on the day’s business. It may also not be practical to do it for older, historic records that have a legal validity only in their original form or may not conform to modern standardised paper sizes.

Historic records may only have a legal validity in their original form

But how much floor space is being used within the business premises for storing this kind of material and how much is it adding to the energy bill? As businesses are now required to record their energy and emission using a centralised off-site storage facility can cut down on taxes.

Centralised business archiving is not the only way of being green.

We know of an e-business that sells all its products online and keeps its stock in a self-store facility. The owner says it cuts down on the space, and therefore the energy that the business uses.

There are other advantages to centralising storage. It will help declutter the office and if using a self-store unit it is possible to install shelving or racking for stock or equipment, or filing systems for archiving so that any items the business needs to access quickly are easy to find.

Rented self-storage facilities themselves contribute to energy efficiency since most self store units have heat or motion sensitive lighting indoors and for outside security. In HomeStore’s case we also have solar panels that have saved 31% on our energy bills since they were installed four years ago.