With sustainability and eco-friendly initiatives at the forefront of business strategies, it’s important to understand how employers and employees can play their part towards a greener future. From small things such as reducing the brightness of your desktop screen to larger scale projects such as implementing solar panels, we’re passionate about playing our part in creating a sustainable future for generations to come.
Unsure on where to start when looking to create an environmentally friendly office? See our top 14 sustainability tips to make your workspace greener!
14 tips to make your office greener
- Making the switch to a green kitchen
- Reduce, reuse and recycle
- Turning unnecessary lights off
- Integrate zero-waste bathroom policies
- Use renewable energy
- Cycling or walking to work
- Vehicle sharing
- Getting the conversation started
- Working with like-minded businesses
- Dimming your screen’s brightness
- Becoming paperless
- Integrating smart technology
- Purchasing goods from sustainability-focused business
- Offsetting your carbon emissions
Kitchen, bathrooms and social areas
Every little thing helps when it comes to making your office greener – it’s easier than at first thought!
1. Making the switch to a green kitchen
Depending on the size of your office, you may have access to either a cafeteria or a dedicated kitchen area – in either case, there are opportunities to adopt eco-friendly practices! Why not start by replacing disposable items with non-disposable cups, cutlery, and towels, or perhaps reusable coffee pods and loose tea when it comes to the hot drink rounds.
If you offer snacks in the office, you can always opt for local and organic choices instead!
2. Reduce, reuse and recycle
This tip doesn’t need much explaining, but adopting the “3 R’s” in the workspace can dramatically reduce your carbon footprint. That drink you bought at lunch (once finished) don’t put it in the regular bin – put it in the recycling!
3. Turning unnecessary lights off
Let’s face it. We’ve all walked into the office breakout or kitchen area with no one in, but the lights are still on. An easy way to reduce your electricity consumption and light pollution, is that once you’ve finished in a room, simply turn the lights off on your way out.
4. Integrate zero-waste bathroom policies
Whilst paper towels aren’t necessarily bad for the environment, the greenhouse gases emitted when getting them delivered is. Swapping these out for automatic hand air dryers will significantly reduce your impact on the environment.
5. Use renewable energy
Some offices will already be using green energy to power their workspace, but some are still using traditional sources. Choosing a provider that provides renewable energy, can significantly impact your carbon footprint and your efforts in reducing it.
Initiatives and movements
Whilst you may be utilising a hybrid model of working, creating office initiatives can be a great way of reducing your employee’s carbon footprint.
6. Cycling or walking to work
When your employees live near the office, consider motivating them to choose walking or cycling as their commuting method. This not only reduces our carbon footprint but also adds a healthy dose of physical activity to our daily routines, enhancing both our well-being and productivity.
7. Vehicle sharing
If cycling or walking isn’t feasible, why not introduce a vehicle sharing initiative? If workers live close by to each other, try to encourage car sharing!
8. Getting the conversation started
Devising a strategy to improve sustainability in the workspace, needs to be communicated to your wider workforce. Why not introduce quarterly updates on how the business is working towards its green goals? You can also use this opportunity to open the floor to suggestions.
9. Working with like-minded businesses
Embracing ethical and environmental practices is important, but the impact can be undermined if your partners and suppliers do not share the same vision and values. It’s important to communicate your ideas for developing a more sustainable business model and outline your expectations from your partners.
Green working practices
Not all sustainability movements need to be ground-breaking to make a difference. Subtle changes can make all the difference!
10. Dimming your screen’s brightness
Dimming your desktop’s display to 70% of its maximum brightness, can save nearly 20% of the energy used by a computer screen. As well as saving energy, reducing the brightness on your screen can reduce the strain on your eyes too.
11. Becoming paperless
Paper is becoming phased out more and more as we spend more time on computers and utilising cloud-based systems, but it’s still important to recognise the impact printing can have on the environment. Making the switch to paperless goes a long way to making a dent in your eco-friendly strategy!
12. Integrating smart technology
Modern technology can provide a wide range of ways in reducing your carbon footprint. From light sensors to smart plugs, from solar panel installation to electric vehicle (EV) charging points, there are plenty of technological solutions you can integrate to lower your emissions.
13. Purchasing goods from sustainability-focused business
Where possible, look for businesses that show a commitment to the environment and are actively implementing eco-friendly practices when buying office goods. Purchasing items like office chairs, desks and other furniture can impact your carbon footprint, but if doing so through an environmentally-conscious provider, this can help offset your emissions.
14. Offsetting your carbon emissions
Whilst not directly in the workspace, businesses can enrol in schemes that can help offset their carbon emissions. Programmes such as tree planting can be a great way to compensate for emissions that can’t be eliminated in the workspace.
How we’re doing our bit to help
As well as being passionate about producing premium office furniture, we’re also passionate about playing our part to tackle climate change. We use sustainable and recyclable MFC ‘Chipboard’ in our furniture and optimise our production to reduce and reuse our waste.
In addition to this, we are currently in the midst of an exciting renewal-energy expansion project in which we will install around 100 solar panels covering the entire roof of our UK-based facility. This not only helps to reduce our carbon footprint, but also eases the strain on local electricity grids, aiding the rollout of charging-stations for electric vehicles.