You’ve probably wondered what’s all the rage about going green? Sure, deodorants damage Earth’s atmosphere, and the oceans have been turned into landfills but what does this have to do with you and your business? All you do is going in and out of the office, doing your job, pushing deadlines, and trying to reach your targets.
But as your company grows, so does your influence. The influence not only over the mindset of your team but also the mindset of your partnering companies, clients, competitors, and nonprofit organizations. And just like that, one single step towards sustainability could inspire a move and turn into a giant leap toward a better, healthier future for Earth.
Being a green-oriented company, ESCREO strives to provide businesses and individuals with greener solutions for the office and educate people on the importance and way paths for reducing earth’s carbon footprint, one step at a time.
First Steps To Running A Green Office
Let your employees know you’ll be switching to greener office solutions. Provide them with all the information about the new organization prior to starting.
Lower education on the importance of environmental safety can lead to lower motivation. Make sure to educate your employees and clients about the risks that a high carbon footprint lifestyle poses for nature and for their own health. Try not to impose the idea but rather give people a choice and provide them with motivation. Numbers have a way of engaging people so you could entertain your team with curious information on the quantity of waste recycled per a given period or the number of threes saved by reducing paper use.
Going Green In The Office
Separated Recycling Containers:
First off, create a recycling system in your office and use separate containers for paper and cardboard, plastic, and metals. Organize regular deliveries to the nearest recycling centres and make sure each office room has separate containers.
No Plastics in The Kitchen:
Encourage the use of environmentally-friendly items for everyday use is the office kitchenette, such as glass cups and mugs, regular metal cutlery, and porcelain dishes instead of disposable ones.
Go Paperless:
- Avoid printing unnecessary documents. Go paperless by digitizing and deploying all your corporate data to the cloud. Export all your interoffice communications to a web-based service, like Slack, Skype, etc.
- Part of going paperless also includes replacing paper coffee filters with Eco ones for multiple uses or just switch your coffee machine with one that does not require the use of coffee filters.
- Print only when necessary and on both sides of the paper sheet whenever possible.
opt out for Using the Eco mode on all office machines, including dishwasher, printers, heating systems, and more. - Replace paper towels in the washrooms and toilets with cloths towels and install hand dryers if necessary.
Save on Energy in The Office:
- Install a smart thermostat with an Eco mode for energy saving. Alternatively, you can set your regular one to 21°C degrees during the day and 16°C during the night. Make sure those numbers are not far apart or your heating and cooling system will frequently turn on and off causing for more energy to be consumed. Make regular check and cleaning of your equipment to optimize their work.
- Turn off all possible office equipment at the end of the day. Enable the standby mode of computers and equipment to save energy when no one uses them. This will also help you cut a lot off your energy bill.
- Don’t keep old equipment around for too long. Being up to date with modern technology will get your initial investment back by helping you save from additional office supplies and electricity by being energy efficient and optimized. Plus, it guarantees a cleaner environment. You can also donate old office equipment and computers to nonprofit organizations or individuals in need.
- Make sure to turn off the light in all rooms whenever they are not in use. The easiest and most efficient way to do that is to set up an automatic system that tracks movement and turns off the lights automatically when no movement is registered. These work best for low traffic spaces, hallways, bathrooms, and meeting rooms.
- Reduce your energy use with up to 75 percent by replacing your old lamps and bulbs with CFLs ( compact fluorescent lamps ) or LED bulbs. These bulbs deliver the same amount of light but use much less energy.
Opt for Green Office Supplies:
- Replace your regular office supplies with green ones. Switch the staples to staple-less staples, get refillable pens and refillable printer cartridges. Some office supplies, like rubber bands, don’t have eco-friendly replacements.
- Try to cut out or avoid completely the use of non-Eco supplies at the office.
- Look for a place to purchase recycled office supplies, such as paper, pens, and markers. The special markers of ESCREO can be easily recycled with the help of the ESCREO recycling box.
- Switch your regular plastic and metal whiteboards with eco-friendly ones. The ESCREO dry-erase paint can help you turn any wall at the office into a limitless writing space. The paint is free of harmful chemicals, emits no toxic fumes and is based on a special nature-friendly water formula.
Save Water in the Office:
- Save up water by installing low-flow faucets and aerators. Make sure they are properly closed and not dripping. You can also install motion sensor toilets and faucets and set a timer to avoid overuse.
- Stop the use of plastic water bottles and encourage employees to use glass bottles and cups.
- Install a water cleaning system and convert regular tap water into healthy drinking water.
Last words
These are many ways to go green and reduce your carbon footprint. You can try all of them, a single one or do neither, but one thing is sure. If we don’t stop the pollution at some point our home is going to turn into a landfill. So we better start late than never.
