Modern companies love to support green facing brands. Making the switch to become a more eco-friendly office doesn’t mean making radical changes to your workplace. It can be as simple as turning the computer off when it’s not in use.
There are hundreds of things that can allow you to feel like you’re doing your bit for your employees to feel better about coming to work. If you don’t know where to start, take a look ways to transfer your office into an ‘eco-friendly office’!
1. Go Paperless
We’ve all unintentionally printed a document twice or written a note to a colleague that easily could’ve been sent as an email! According to kefron.com the average UK office worker uses up to 45 pieces of paper every day and a huge two-thirds of that is considered waste with the average family throwing away 6 trees worth of paper yearly. By having a Paperless policy in the office which limits each person to only a certain number of sheets printed per week you’re already on the way to being more carbon-neutral, this Christmas alone consumers in the Uk will use 227,000 miles of wrapping paper and 40 million roles of sticky tape!
2. ‘Green’ challenges
Team eco-friendly challenges is a really enjoyable way to get the word spreading about saving the environment. Simple things like having a Vegan day in the office or more thought through plans like cycle to work schemes are a great start. If you’ve got a particularly competitive office (like ours) having forfeits for leaving lights on or buying a plastic bottle with your meal deal is a really fun way to get everyone involved.
3. Recycling
Its sounds like a simple one but you’d be surprised how many Brits still don’t recycle! In the UK, only 44.3% of waste is recycled . It’s estimated that 80% of the contents in our bins could easily have been recycled.
4. Office plants
Office plants don’t just make the office a more colourful place to work, having a large house plant inside will improve air quality. “Plants produce more oxygen, offsetting any chemicals released into the air by new office furniture and making a cleaner, happier space for your people to work in,” said Rebecca Galloway, communications manager at information design studio FFunction .
5. Reuseable bottles
Upon starting at a new job being supplied a reusable company branded bottle sends a really positive message to new starters. Switching to a reusable water bottle decreases oil used, greenhouse gasses emitted as well as the number of bottles being thrown away or ending up in our countryside and oceans.
6. Switch to plastic-free teabags
Make sure your employees are more sympathetic to the environment without sacrificing the most essential drink of the morning. The only difference between plastic and biodegradable tea bags are that in actual fact you could be risking drinking tiny bits of plastic along with our favourite hot beverage!
7. Turn off electricals in the office
Making sure that a strict everything off at night rule is instated. This will save your company on electricity bills. Why not invest in some eco-friendly blubs? LED bulbs use less power than compact fluorescent bulbs and last a lot longer too. Every change will not only profit the environment but the company too!
Most people end up spending almost a third of their life at work. According to a ‘ study from UCLA ’ companies will see a 16% rise in employee productivity at work from becoming more green-fingered.
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Check out our blog post: ‘Climate Change and HR Directors