Did you know, more than 1 in 3 employees are demanding that their bosses declare a climate emergency?
The impact your company’s operations have on the environment varies depending on the size and industry, but even on a micro-scale, there are plenty of ways you can do your bit to help make your workplace greener.
As well as helping the environment, improving energy efficiency and employing ‘green’ practices can helps save the business some serious money, and bring other benefits – such as keeping yourself and your colleagues healthier, fitter and even more productive.
Switch it off
Unplug or turn off office equipment like PCs and TVs when they are not needed and place posters reminding people to turn of lights and air conditioning units when they leave meeting rooms or toilets. Better still, install sensors or smart systems to automatically turns lights off when rooms are empty.
If that’s just not practical during working hours, then make sure your employees turn off their computers at night – because even standby mode uses up valuable energy resources – and switch the lights off when they leave.
Take the stairs
Most people don’t even think twice about taking the lift up and down a few floors several times a day, but how about trying to break that habit and take the stairs?
If you do need to take the lift, the most important factor to save power consumption is to fully load the lift. Since nowadays lifts are made with counterbalances, the motor of the lift pulls the difference of the net weight of the elevator and counterweight.
If a lift is designed for 5 persons and if only one person uses it, the lift is going to consume much more electricity.
If you do take the stairs, you’ll be saving energy whilst also getting fitter and boosting your own energy levels.
Walk or cycle
Taking the train or bus to work is better than driving, but why not go one step further by walking or cycling to the office? You might need to get out of bed earlier, but you won’t be frustrated by getting stuck in traffic – and you’ll be clocking up those 10,000 recommended daily steps in no time. Not to mention how much money you’ll save!
If it’s too far to walk, then how about cycling to the office? And, if it’s still too far to cycle, then, at the very very least, explore public transport or try to arrange a regular car share with colleagues who live nearby to you.
Office managers can incentivise employees to cycle to work or take public transport by offering loan schemes for buying bikes or season tickets and provide showers if possible. If you need a fleet of company vehicles, opt for electric or hybrid.
Buy Green
Insist on buying from green suppliers. Whether that’s office supplies, your energy supplier or sub-contractors, explore the providence of what they supply and check their environmental credentials and policies.
Try to cater for lunches or meetings with local, organic and sustainable food. And use proper cups, plates and cutlery rather than disposable ones to reduce plastic waste. Also, pass up on that daily coffee takeaway. Not only will it save you about £800 a year, but will help to reduce the 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups used in the UK each year.
If you aren’t in charge of selecting suppliers, speak to the people who are and try to explain the benefits of buying green.
Grow plants around the office
Turn your workplace literally green by adding plants around the office. Office plants add more healthy oxygen to the workplace and improve indoor air pollution by removing volatile organic compounds like Benzene, Formaldehyde and Trichloroethylene from the air.
As well as helping the office to become a healthier and greener place to work, numerous studies have shown that plants in the office lead to increased work productivity too.
Have A Recycling Policy
Make space in the office for recycling bins and try to get all employees to use them to recycle cans, plastic water bottles and other recyclable items so that they don’t all end up in the bin.
A recycling policy is a great place to start a real office culture of saving energy, recycling items and living green. If you need help with this, contact us and we can help you with your environmentally-friendly waste management needs.
