The good news is that are a countless number of simple things you can do to make your office a greener and more environmentally friendly place today. Splunch Club is here to help with these easily implementable steps to a greener office.
1. Recycle
Make sure you have good systems in place to encourage employees to recycle as much as possible. Recycling bins for paper, glass, plastic and aluminium should be positioned in prominent places around your office. The most obvious examples are of course next to the photocopying machines and in the kitchen and dining areas. Used ink and toner cartridges can also be recycled. If these bins are readily available and recycling doesn’t involve any additional effort on the employee’s part, your recycling policy is much more likely to be a success. This is the easiest first step to creating a greener office.
2. Ditch plastic and paper cups!
Does your office have stack of paper cups by the coffee machine and another stack by the water machine? Thought so! It’s time to get rid of these highly wasteful and environmentally destructive drinking vessels! Give every employee two company branded reusable cups, one for cold beverages and one for warm. Your team are much more likely to use these if plastic and paper cups are taken out of the equation. You can of course still have a stock of reusable dishware such as glass and ceramic cups and mugs. This easy move can instantly make your office much greener and more eco-friendly.
3. Choose vendors carefully
Do a little background research on your vendors. Try to opt for those who use minimal/ recyclable packaging. Catered office lunches and snacks don’t have to mean tons of rubbish afterwards. Lots of forward-thinking vendors pride themselves in their economical environmentally friendly packaging. Additionally, choose organic and fairtrade snack and beverage options where possible. Tea and coffee is a great place to start.
4. Be thoughtful about transport
Set up a simple bike to work scheme to help employees make that transition to biking it to work. Apart from being incredibly environmentally friendly, even just a short cycle to work has been proven to have positive effects on mental and physical being. Also consider making a contribution towards employees’ public transport tickets or setting up a season ticket loan system.
5. Don't be a paper pusher!
Buy and use recycled paper for your office printers. And make sure you’re using machines which allow for double-sided printing. Put up instructional signs to guide employees through double-sided photocopying and printing. Instead of printing out sheets for meetings, email these to colleagues so everyone can view them together during the meeting. This is more practical too, this way everyone has an electronic record of the meeting which they can access at any time.
6. Use electricity wisely
Put computers on energy-saving settings and of course turn off all electronic equipment when not in use. Naturally, as employees are rushing for home at the end of a long day, they could forget to turn off their monitors. A good solution to this is putting eye-catching and even entertaining stickers on electronic devices which catch people’s attention and remind them to switch off. Also make use of natural light insofar as possible and most certainly switch to using LED light bulbs if you don’t already use them.
We can all make steps, small or large, to make our office greener and more environmentally friendly. Introduce fun incentives for employees to participate e.g. a sustainability team who track and award the greenest employees and encourage everyone participate. There is also no need to keep these efforts a secret. Feel free to boast on your newsletter, website page and social media that your office is truly progressive in terms of caring for the planet. Good luck!
