No matter what goods and services retailers sell, it’s more important than ever to be cognizant of the impact every business makes on the environment. The onus is on businesses to become more eco-friendly and run a business that’s sustainable environmentally. One way to take a step toward a more eco-friendly retail environment is by using active weighing solutions and other new technologies that are good for the environment and can help businesses save money in the long run. Let’s take a closer look at how our active weighing solutions work and other tools and methods that can help any retail store become more environmentally conscious and eco-friendly.
Eco-Friendly Technology
In general, smart technology is more eco-friendly than traditional technology, and this is true when it comes to our active weighing solutions. Not only can smart scales and similar technology bring more to the table for both stores and consumers but they don’t require as much energy to operate or create waste. Therefore, the carbon footprint with one of our active weighing solutions will be reduced compared to a more conventional retail scale. Using this technology can help retailers in a variety of ways, including being more eco-friendly and sustainable over the long run.
Gain Customer Insights With Active Weighing Solutions
Active weighing solutions can also play a role in gaining insight into customer behaviors that can then be used to promote good environmental choices. This is particularly true with a scanner scale that combines a scale and a POS. Obviously, the scale serves its own purpose in a retail setting. Meanwhile, the scanner part of the technology helps to collect and analyze information about employee purchases. This can help to promote complementary or similar products that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Smart scanners and scales can even help inform consumers of the carbon footprint of their purchase, which makes them more aware of their impact on the environment and can lead them to make smarter choices. This may not be the most obvious reason to utilize smart scanners in a retail setting, but it’s certainly a positive byproduct of having one available for customers.
Life Span of Scales
Another benefit of smart technology that shouldn’t be overlooked is the lifespan of these devices. Smart scales will be a little more durable than traditional retail scales, so they won’t need to be replaced as frequently. Since these active weighing solutions use smart technology, they can be integrated with new types of tools that come along in the future. They certainly won’t become obsolete the way traditional retail scales have been. That extended lifespan also helps from an environmental perspective because those products won’t have to be replaced as often, which helps to reduce a retailer’s carbon footprint.
Smart Scales with Smart Shelves
Retailers can find even more benefits for both their business and the environment when they combine smart scales with other smart technologies. Specifically, smart scales are complementary to smart shelves. Modern technology with shelves can help to monitor inventory levels more effectively, so needless products don’t have to be reordered and popular items are never out of stock. This improves the overall efficiency in which a retail store is run, which will reduce a store’s overall carbon footprint in the long run. After all, being efficient in one area with smart technology often leads to environmental efficiency as well.
Reduce Food Waste
Naturally, retail scales are often used to measure food, and with smart scale technology, food waste can be reduced significantly. Smart scales are naturally more accurate and precise with their measurements than older scales. This helps to create exact measurements when weighing food to be purchased from a retailer or used in a commercial setting. With these exact measurements, food won’t be wasted because the wrong amount was calculated either while the food was being purchased or prepared.
Unfortunately, far too much food goes to waste. By using smart scales and creating more accurate readings when measuring food volumes, food waste can be reduced significantly, which helps the environment in a variety of ways.
Reduce Energy Use
As mentioned, active weighing solutions can help to reduce energy consumption in retail settings because this new technology is more energy efficient than older technologies. But this is just one way that retailers can reduce the energy they use and their carbon footprint.
Using power strips with all electronic devices can also help with this because it makes it easier to turn everything off when devices aren’t being used. The same is true of turning off the lights at the end of the day or having motion sensors that turn off lights automatically in rooms that aren’t being used. Along those same lines, something as simple as using LED light bulbs can go a long way toward reducing the amount of energy used in retail.
Stop Using Paper
The more retailers can go paperless, the more eco-friendly will become. Active weighing solutions can help with this because they can be connected to digital signs that eliminate the need for paper signs or instructions that accompany smart scales. This is another example of combining smart scales with complementary types of technology that can have a multitude of benefits, including environmental benefits.
At the same time, retailers can also move toward providing online and digital receipts for customers. It’s also easier to track all financial information and business transactions digitally rather than printing out paper copies. Needless to say, going paperless means being eco-friendly, which is something retailers can do in a variety of ways.
Clean with Green
Last but not least, retailers can become more eco-friendly by using green clean products exclusively. Smart scales, smart shelves, and anything else used in a retail setting should be cleaned with cleaning products that are natural and biodegradable. These types of cleaning products aren’t as hard to find or expensive as most people think. Therefore, they aren’t going to change the budget or become a hassle.
It’s just a matter of committing to using green cleaning products and following through on that commitment the same as any other business decision. The only difference is that this is the type of business decision that will have a positive impact on the environment and play a key role in creating a more eco-friendly retail environment.