Being “green” is about more than making a ‘Happy Earth Day’ post on your social media.

To survive and thrive in today’s business economy, it’s time to get smart about your resource use and also make sure your actions match with your values and messaging around it -- these principles are important to modern consumers, too.

Your employees, recruits and your target audience are all paying attention to how your business handles supporting environmental responsibility and sustainability.

Here are 9 areas that you can take action in right now to have a more sustainable business:

1. Be Energy Efficient

Upgrade your lighting, office equipment, and other major energy-sinks, such as your building or unit’s heating and A/C, to be as efficient as possible.

2. Conserve Water

Repair any plumbing leaks or drips right away, and consider installing efficient toilets, water heaters and taps. Make filtered tap water available to your staff instead of single-serve bottles.

3. Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

Minimize your resource use and eliminate waste by being as efficient as possible. Anything that can’t be reduced or eliminated can likely be reused or recycled.

4. Make Landscaping Greener

Plan and plant with resource conservation in mind, using native plants (and turf grass only where people will use it for recreation). Adjust sprinklers so they don’t water the pavement and/or use a rain barrel for watering your plants.

5. Save Paper

Keep your mailing lists current, reuse your manilla envelopes, staple your scrap paper together for scratch pads, and use your outdated letterhead for internal memos.

6. Invest in Sustainability

Purchase recycled plastic and paper goods, refurbished equipment, copiers that can print double-sided, rechargeable batteries and reusable dishes for your office.

7. Go Digital

Store your business records on cloud servers as opposed to printing hard copies. Consider how many papers moving around your office get trashed by the end of the day, and what can go digital (almost all of it!).

8. Commute Smarter

Set an example and encourage your employees to use public transportation or bicycle, walk or carpool to work. The greenest commute is no commute at all, so allow working from home.

9. Protect People

Your team is obviously one of your company’s most important resources, so wisely nurture and retain them, too! Be intentional with your company culture, promoting inclusion and internal support, and also protect yourself, your staff and everyone’s peace of mind by having health coverage.