As you may have seen on the TV or read in the newspapers, (or, if you’ve looked out of the window over the last few months!) we are in somewhat of a climate crisis. Businesses therefore need to be aware of their own environmental responsibilities – in fact, where the retail and hospitality industries are concerned, consumers demand nothing less with 61% expecting brands to have a clear set of sustainability practices, with 47% of those also saying they won’t buy from brands that contravene these values.¹)
It is why retailers, restaurateurs, hoteliers, leisure operators etc. need to make adopting more eco-friendly and sustainable practices a business priority. As more and more customers are considering these credentials before choosing who to spend their hard-earned money with.
Don’t despair too much, improvements can be made in many areas of a business, including your EPOS systems and IT infrastructure. Of course, where any electrical equipment is concerned, energy consumption and carbon emissions are always going to be part of the discussion.
At Tills Direct, we sell both new and refurbished equipment. By refurbishing and reusing EPOS equipment we are extending its working life and reducing electronic waste.
Here are other ways EPOS can be more environmentally friendly.
Choosing durable hardware
We offer products from many manufacturers, a lot of whom have their own ‘Green Credentials’. Aures, for example, manufactures its products to be tough, resilient and to last as long as possible. Having a longer operational life means fewer devices have to be replaced and less defunct devices will need to be disposed of.
Component recycling
Up to 85% of all the world’s ‘e-waste’ is either dumped in landfill or incinerated. This can lead to toxic chemicals being released when plastics are burned as well as so-called heavy metals used in chip manufacture ending up in water and food systems. In fact, and this figure may surprise you, e-waste accounts for a phenomenal 70% of all toxic waste! So, if an item is beyond repair and has reached the end of its operational life, it is vital that the equipment is disposed of correctly so that its components can be properly recycled.
Requesting Digital Receipts
As you may have noticed when you are out shopping, more and more retailers are now asking whether you want a paper receipt rather than automatically printing one. This is a really easy way for point-of-sale operations to be more sustainable.
Digital receipts are likely to become the norm going forward. Bluetooth and web-push technology means that a receipt can be instantly sent to a smartphone - this could also be used as a good way of capturing invaluable customer data. If they have a customer account you can send them receipts via their preferred method; smartphone app, SMS, email etc.
Embracing the Cloud
Using cloud-based EPOS software platforms are more flexible, scalable, cost-effective, easier to manage and they are greener too. Yes, data centre operators may have issues over energy efficiency and their own carbon footprint, but it is still far more efficient than having lots of smaller, on-premise servers running at thousands of business locations.
Remote maintenance
Thanks to the prevalence of remote access software, nowadays, unless it is an actual fault with the hardware, most EPOS equipment faults can be diagnosed or fixed remotely. No more engineers going from site to site to sort something simple, that can now be done at the push of a button. That’s a lot of fuel saved!
We hope these examples help. Looking for some further advice? We’d be happy to help! Please call us on 01299 488031 or email us via info@tills-direct.com.
With thanks as ever, to Aures for their help with this article.
(¹Figures taken from Smurfit Kappa Report: Sustainability reshapes the business landscape published in July 2020).
