The “green office movement” is on the rise, with more and more people being inspired to act. From simple actions, like switching out light bulbs to installing a green dishwasher, there are many tips and tricks you can use to make your work environment both cleaner and greener.
This article will go over several different ways how you can help the environment by going green at the office. These tips can easily be carried over to a home office and a commercial office.
What Is a Green Office?
The office has gained a bad reputation for its environmentally unfriendly practices; we all know about our electronic gadgets throwing off huge amounts of carbon dioxide daily, but you can help reverse this trend just by changing a few habits.
Many office employees don’t even realize their actions are environmentally unfriendly. You may not even realize how much paper you go through daily, for example, but it all adds up to something big and harmful.
By simply downgrading the amount of paper usage, using alternative means of transportation, like carpooling, and recycling your trash instead of throwing it away, you can make a big impact on the environment without making that much effort.
Follow these tips to make life greener at the office:
Use Rechargeable Batteries
Batteries are easily one of the most environmentally unfriendly items around. Batteries are not recyclable and usually end up in landfills.
By switching to rechargeable batteries in things like your wireless mouse and keyboard, TV, and display remotes, etc., you’ll save having to buy new batteries and save batteries from ending up in a landfill.
Be sure to send a memo to the office reminding workers that when batteries are exhausted, they should be returned to a central location and put on charge.
Bonus points to you if you set up an easy swap station where workers can easily swap exhausted batteries for recharged batteries.
Ditch the Paper Plates and Utensils at Parties and Meetings
Do you know how many trees are cut down annually to make paper plates? Using paper plates and utensils to serve food or cake at meetings or parties is a big source of unnecessary waste.
Of course, you know you need to recycle your workplace waste but to conserve natural resources, set up a reusable dish station with non-plastic utensil sets. You can even use this as an opportunity to switch out plates for trays and bowls, which is not only environmentally beneficial, but also helps with portion control.
It can be an appealing change of pace for employees to switch from paper dishes to dishes made from ceramics, glassware, and stainless steel.
Buy Reusable Water Bottles for the Office
Do you know how many water bottles you use weekly at your office? Ordering bottled water is a common practice for many business owners, but it’s also one of the most environmentally unfriendly things you can do.
Why not set up a free freshwater station inside the office? With a few large water jugs and some refillable glasses and cups, employees will have plenty of fresh, clean drinking water all day long.
Bonus points if you install a reverse osmosis system that allows you to use the same filtered reclaimed water for coffee or tea and drink and even more points for handing out branded water bottles for workers who are reluctant to change.
