In a world that’s becoming more aware of the impact we’re having on the deteriorating environment, it’s time to make sure your business is one of the many joining the movement towards a greener tomorrow. Whether you’re introducing a recycling trash can or changing the light bulbs used in the office space, no step is too small!
Today, we’re taking a look at the different eco-friendly changes you can implement into your business to ensure you’re doing everything you can to become green with the help of your fellow colleagues.
Choose smart lighting
You might find that there are times when natural light isn’t sufficient enough or appropriate to light your office – for instance in the winter when we have less daylight or in the summer when the sun is shining so bright in the sky it’s a little blinding. In these cases, you have to rely more upon artificial lighting.
You have two options when it comes to your lighting. The first one is you could install motion activated lights – if the last employee out of the building forgets to switch them off, it doesn’t matter because they’ll switch off after a while of not detecting motion. It’s a great way to prevent any wasted energy on lighting an empty office. Installing them in rooms which aren’t used as regularly such as meeting rooms and conference areas, are a good starting point if it isn’t practical to have them in the whole office.
The second option is to change your bulbs to LED alternatives. They consume less energy than a traditional bulb and tend to last way longer. In an ideal world, you’ll be able to use LED lights in motion sensored technology to get most out of being environmentally friendly.
Design the interior with nature in mind
It’s natural to want to have the coolest office interior – from pool tables to lounging areas, offices across the globe are in silent competition to be trendy.
Office plants are too becoming a trend that is definitely worth jumping on. Not only are they visually stimulating and give a fresh feel to the workplace, they have multiple benefits. They can help you to reduce your carbon emissions and they can naturally purify the air which could mean in the summer months you may not have to rely on the air conditioning as much. Do your research when picking office plants as some are more effective than others.
Supply employees with their own mug
On the commute to work, you probably pass by plenty of places that you can go and buy your morning take away coffee from, whether you’re on foot or in the car. As delicious as your frothy, Instagrammable coffee might be, if it’s in a single-use cup then it’s probably not very eco-friendly.
Similarly, the same applies if in your office your employees are able to grab a quick coffee during the day from a throwaway cup. To tackle the problem head-on, why not go on brand and get a collection of mugs that promote you company logo that can be used by both employees all day every day and guests coming in for a meeting.
Alternatively, if there’s not enough money in the budget to supply an entire office with a personalized mug, then look at eco-friendly packaging options such as a sustainable, single use coffee cups instead. At least this way, they’ll be easy to recycle so you’re still doing your bit to become green.
Introduce a green scheme
Getting everyone on board with your eco-friendly movement is far easier when they have an incentive to do so. There are so many different options out there for the types of schemes you can introduce into your business to encourage sustainable behavior.
Recycling is something we should all be doing but can often forget to implement when in the office – especially when you’re a busy startup business entrepreneur with lots of adhoc things going on. We suggest, therefore, creating a recycling scheme to regularly keep it at the forefront of your employees’ minds. Have different trash cans in the kitchen area, one for general waste and one for recycling to encourage their use.
Additionally, if you wanted to encourage recycling through a competitive initiative, you could have two recycling cans and split your employees into two different teams to see who collects the most recycling. At the end of a two week period, whichever team has filled their trash can with the most recyclable items receives a reward. Not only will this ensure that everything that can be recycled is, but will also get your employees to start using biodegradable containers and packaging where possible as they become more waste-aware.
Now you have some ideas to encourage all things eco-friendly in your workplace. Whether you adopt all of them or just one, you’ll be doing your part and that will make all the difference to the environment.
This post was submitted by Elizabeth Raw. She works for R+R Packaging, providers of biodegradable and eco-friendly packaging materials for businesses within a wide variety of industries.
