Small business owners are jumping on the green bandwagon because they think it’s the right thing to do, not because they expect a great return on green investments.

There are bonafide cost savings with environmentally friendly practices, but money isn’t the prime motivator for 71% of the small companies surveyed by the online payroll service, SurePayroll. Instead, business owners say they adopt green practices like recycling, telecommuting, energy reduction and recycling products because they want to.

SurePayroll reports that when small businesses adopt environmentally friendly practices:

• 93% recycle
• 79% give employees reusable office mugs
• 75% use environmentally friendly office supplies, and
• 68% limit use of electricity or energy.

There is money to be saved by adopting these kinds of programs. Roughly 50% of those surveyed realized between 5% to 10% return on their investments by doing the right thing for Mother Earth. Some of the ways companies save money include:

1. giving employees reusable coffee mugs instead of Styrofoam cups
2. using environmentally friendly office supplies (i.e., recycled paper and LEED-certified products)
3. switching to cloth towels and biodegradable soap in rest rooms
4. telecommuting, and
5. encouraging employees to use public transportation instead of driving to work.

The SurePayroll survey is here.

About 25% of those surveyed didn’t think of themselves as doing anything “green.” However, it turns out they have taken at least one step to be sustainable — they use an online direct deposit service instead of issuing paper checks. SurePayroll provides online direct deposit services.

For each employee that’s switched to online direct deposit, a company helps eliminate four tons of wastewater and a pound of greenhouse gas emissions every year. This saves the company about $176 a year, according to a survey by the PayItGreen Alliance.

Tags: energy reduction, green business, payroll, recycling, sustainable, telecommuting