Ditch The Paper And Recycle Your Approach To Making Your Office More Sustainable!

All businesses in the 21st Century must be working on their eco-friendliness, to appease consumers, and this includes enterprises in industries that are typically not using sustainable resources like oil and gas. The topic of ethics and being morally responsible in business is subjective, and the PR promotion usually comes before any actual real change. In this article, we look at how your business can turn rhetoric into an action plan to sustainability.

Here are some guidelines to get on the green pathway:

Reduce The Amount Of Paper You Use

Another benefit of the widespread use of computers is that steps can be made to encourage the office to completely “”go digital””.

With more and more companies spreading the word of using less paper, take the initiative and send more emails than letters, use e-invoicing software to bill your clients, and carry your tablet around as an extension of your body. It is lighter than carrying piles of paper anyway!

Source Local Produce For Your Foodstuffs

If your office or business has a canteen, providing locally sourced produce and selling drinks that are fair trade will go a long way to being more ethical. Source products from local farmers and ethical sellers. This reduces the carbon footprint and helps support local businesses.

Work From Home

This one will probably go down wonderfully with your employees! Ask staff to work from home one day a week and communicate via an instant chat or messenger service. By doing so, there is less staff using their cars, using less paper and costing the business less money overall. This is very handy if you have limited office space. Another advantage to this is that the staff members are likely to get more done from home as they will be more refreshed due to not needing to commute.

Don’t Go On “Standby”

Computers are the perfect focal point of an office or business. It is hard to imagine anyone going into an office of the 21st Century and not use computers. Reducing your energy usage from a computer can be from switching the monitor off when you leave your desk. Or, more importantly, shutting down your computer completely when you leave the office for the day. Don’t just put it on standby, as a lot of offices recommend. You can also set your computer to run on energy-saving settings or use a smart power strip.

Encourage Car Shares

Asking employees to use their car one less day a week, or to have a carpooling scheme will benefit the environment. In this way, the staff is being more economical in their cost of transport. It will also encourage better-working relationships as they are spending more time together.

Use Public Transport, Bike, Walk or Scooter

It’s an exciting time to be alive with so many options to get where you need to be. Using a bike or an e-bike is very good for reducing your carbon footprint and if you ditch your gas-fuelled vehicle altogether, just think how much better it will be for the environment and your pocket. There would be no need for a carpark and expensive maintenance. Of course, when you need to get somewhere out of town, you can Uber or car-sharing service. Walking is right for your health, so don’t discount an enjoyable stroll instead of reaching for the car keys and instead of flying consider taking a train, it’s way more eco-friendly.

There are plenty of ways to go green in the office. The important thing is to make small steps in the right direction if you haven’t got anything in place. The more you gradually build-up, the easier it is to make small changes as you go, instead of making massive changes.