Want to become a more sustainable office? Becoming eco-friendly is high on most people’s & businesses priority lists now as the world sees the need for healthier lifestyles and sustainable living. Running an eco-friendly office can not only be good for the environment but can also be good for your bottom line. We spend a good part of our life at our companies and as such, a large part of our impact on the environment happens during our time at work. There is not always the need to spend a lot of money on buildings to create new eco-offices, there are simple things that you can do to create an eco-friendly workplace. Even the smallest of changes can make a difference, so take a look at our eco-friendly office tips. Even small things like embracing natural light, paperless meetings, and working from home can help your company save money and energy.
There are simple and apparently not very significant actions, but if everyone adopted them environmental impacts would be greatly reduced.
Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is an old saying, but it holds especially true now. Use recycling in your offices to immediately offset some unnecessary landfill waste. In addition to normal recycling of paper, cardboard, glass, and metals, introduce recycling for some of the less common items like:
- Ink and Toner Cartridges
- Batteries
- Food scraps (for composting)
Avoid Plastic Cups and Other Disposable Cutlery
- Using a plastic or even a plastic-cardboard cup may seem like a small gesture but altogether, it can have a significant environmental impact. There are about 220 working days in a year. Imagine you take 2 coffees per day: that represents almost 500 cups and 500 stirrers discarded unnecessarily each year.
Recycle E-waste Properly
Even people who are usually great at recycling often overlook e-waste. Electronic devices are not only bad for the environment because of the plastics and other hard materials. Electronics often contain dangerous chemicals like mercury and lead that leak into the earth when they reach landfill.
A quick online search will be able to show you your nearest electronics recycling plant. Old computers, printers, phones, and other electronics can be disposed of safely. You could even offer the facility to employees for them to bring in e-waste to be recycled with office equipment.
Go paperless
Corrections, revisions, and updates on printed documents contribute to 90% of all office waste!
Get in the habit of reviewing digital documents on-screen, rather than printing them out and in a digital age, paperless makes sense. Cloud storage is abundantly available and cheap and you can use it to store any form of data. Use it in conjunction with cloud storage and CRM software and it can also take a lot of the work out of handling and destroying data in line with GDPR and data protection rules.
- Only have one printer and don’t keep paper loaded – if printing is harder work, people are less likely to do it.
- Encourage the use of devices, including mobile phones, for accessing minutes or documents during meetings
- Request that other companies, including banks and lenders, send e-statements and invoices rather than paper copies
- Ensure all computers have the right software for doing markups and reviews on digital copies of documents
- Maintain a straightforward and easy to navigate digital filing system. The easier documents are to find, the less people will be inclined to print them
- Ensure scanning is easy. If you want to go paperless, some documents will need to be scanned into the digital database. If scanning is complicated or difficult then employees will be less likely to want to adhere to the paperless system.
Utilise & maximise natural light
One of the easiest ways to reduce energy consumption is to use natural lighting instead of artificial lighting. Even in darker offices this can be achieved with a bit of creativity.
Not only will you be helping to reduce your carbon footprint, but you will also be increasing employee satisfaction and productivity. A recent study discovered that natural light and an outdoor view ranked as the number one desire for office environments.
The World Green Building Council reports that employees working near sunlit windows have a 15% higher production rate.
- Have an open floorplan that allows light to travel
- Move large furniture or equipment away from windows to allow more light in
- Use lighter colours in your décor that allows light to bounce off it
- Use mirrors in your décor to bounce the light through the room
- Where artificial lighting is required, replace lighting fixtures with LEDs, you’ll reduce energy consumption and costs on utility bills
Turn off electronics, lighting, heat & air conditioning
Instate a strict everything-off-at-night rule!
- Use Energy-Efficient Appliances
- Don’t leave electronics and chargers on ‘stand by’, this will greatly reduce costs and energy consumption – switch off plugs
- Many computers have energy efficient screens now, most appliances come with an energy rating, and lights can be set up to be motion activated. A lot of electronic equipment also has a “sleep-mode” option that uses less energy. Be sure to check the options on your equipment and appliances to save as much energy as you can. Making a switch to energy efficient appliances will save you money as you won’t be using electricity when you don’t need to. Switching to energy efficient appliances will also improve your green rating and decrease your carbon footprint.
- If you’re not ready to make a switch to new appliances yet, you can still reduce energy use by simply switching off and unplugging appliances and equipment at the end of the day.
- Lay off the thermostat – Adapt Your Dress Code
Workplaces are often over heated in the winter months and over-air conditioned in the summer so to avoid wasting energy, adapt your outfit and be more flexible on the dress code. Wearing a suit with shirt, a jacket, and a tie during a heatwave – it’s not pleasant, nor is it very sustainable and eco-friendly since it likely means turning on the AC. So where possible – adopt a climate-adapted dress code. - In the same way, think about eco-friendly actions you can take. Like turning off the lights when you get out of the toilet, for example.
- Turning off your computer when you go on a lunch break is relevant too.
Encourage green commuting & flexible office schedules
- Offering work-from-home policies can significantly reduce your company’s carbon footprint
- Companies can encourage employees to lower commuting emissions by walking, biking, carpooling, or taking public transit to the office, and offering incentives to do so
- Reduce employee travel whenever possible – utilise web/video conferencing tools, this will save travel costs and emissions.
- More flexible schedules allow employees to be more productive, more motivated, and to be better in their professional life.
Use eco-friendly office products
- There may not be room in your budget to buy exclusively sustainable products, but you can focus on certain areas that have a huge overall impact, such as more efficient electronics, pens, cleaning products, paper, lightbulbs, coffee
- Switch to recycled paper and change your cleaning products from harsh chemicals to sustainable and natural cleaners
Get a desk plant & bring nature indoors
- If you’re able, bring in a desk plan to improve indoor air quality and bring some nature into the office environment. Plants naturally improve air quality by filtering the air, absorbing any chemicals, and producing fresh, clean oxygen.
- A study that shows 87% of air pollutants in an office can be removed by plants over a 24-hour stretch.
- An added benefit of having plants in the office is that stress and sickness decrease in offices where there are plants. Your bottom line will benefit from increased productivity, and there will be less need to worry about sick pay and leave if your employees work in a healthy office.
Create a workplace eco team
Who’s in charge of monitoring and producing progress reports? This is an interesting way to get teams together while pushing for more sustainable behaviours.
- You can also reduce your waste in a fun way using to challenges. Who will print the least in June? Which team will produce the least waste?
- Have regular “Green” challenges and incentives
- Organize “Waste Reduction” Challenges
- Have monthly recycling goals or energy consumption challenges to keep things interesting and educate your staff on environmentally friendly practices
- Offer incentives for bringing in mugs and bottles instead of using single use items, or for anyone who washes their dishes at break instead of using the dishwasher.
- Small prizes like coffee gift vouchers or a day off in the month won’t put undue pressure on your bottom line, but they will improve your office morale and environmental impact