From the plastic waste in the oceans to the increased amount of carbon emissions that affect our health directly, there are scores of reasons for humankind to consciously move towards a greener lifestyle that benefits them and the nature around them. 

Waste reduction is a hot topic in today’s world. With the vast amount of knowledge spread and people’s own goodwill, concerns about carbon footprint and environmental impacts have made their way into the daily lives of commoners. People are becoming more aware of the extended efforts needed to reduce waste and conserve our planet’s resources. Similarly, businesses around the world are also putting gravity into their Go-Green campaigns. If you want your office to go green, you are at the right spot. In this blog we present to you the 5 tips to Go-Green in your office.   

 

1. Saving on electricity: One of the basic but essential habits to adopt is to turn off computers, printers, lights, air-conditioners, and other electronic equipment when not in use. Automatic switches and sensors can be used for this purpose as well. To further enhance the energy saving movement, it is recommended to use energy savers such as LED bulbs. It will not only reduce the carbon footprint of the workplace but also save you some valuable money on electricity bills. This money can be further reinvested in planning a green work environment or can even be used to reward the best green employee in the office to further promote the spirits of Go-Green campaigns.

2. Reusable Water bottles and Cups: Another major step to reduce workplace waste is to ban the use of one-time plastic bottles and disposable cups. Instead, encourage employees to bring their own reusable Aluminum bottles and glassware mugs. Companies can also provide reusable multifunction bottles with their custom logo to promote sustainable habits and keep employees away from one-time-use plastic bottles. You can remove all plastic cups and plastic bottles from the vending machines. Additionally, it is very important to install water coolers that serves as an excellent alternative to one-time-use water bottles and promotes the use of reusable bottles.

  

3. A Kitchenette & Office Owned Kitchen Dishes: It is a good idea to allocate a small portion of the office real estate as a kitchen that should have basic amenities and kitchen utensils. Glassware such as plates, mugs, and other utensils can always help encourage staff and employees to ditch the one-time-use disposable utensils. Furthermore, having a microwave oven so that people can heat their lunch introduces great benefits too. In addition, an efficient dishwashing machine can always come in handy for convenient cleaning of used kitchen utensils.

Providing employees with such facilities always encourages them to bring homemade food and avoid takeaway lunches. Conventional takeaway plastic lunch boxes and bags are either hard to recycle or are not recyclable at all. Reusable tin containers can also be distributed amongst office workers that can be used to store dry food, snacks, small-sized items, office stationery, and more. Paper and plastic make up for almost half the trash produced by a business, above mentioned steps will help to drastically reduce the amount of plastic and cardboard waste and help the workplace to go green.   

  

4. Recycle Electronic Equipment: Reduce your E-waste! E-waste primarily refers to unwanted, broken, or outdated electronic items that are usually considered not worth repairing or upgrading and are thrown into the trash cans. However, remember that almost all computers can be recycled, and most computers can be fixed or updated after upgrading components. Therefore, as a rule of thumb, always try to fix or upgrade electronic items before considering throwing them away. This will save you some bucks and the environment a lot of carbon emissions. And if you have finally decided to dispose of some electronics, in that case, it is vital that you trash it correctly into the designated recycling cans.   

  

5. Reduce Paper Waste: This seems to be an obvious and easy thing to do, but most of the waste generated in the workplace is paper waste. Several steps can be taken to eliminate this type of waste, some of which are mentioned as follows. Always try to take paperless notes. A small laptop or a tablet can always come in handy for this. Most of the handwritten notes are often converted into digital files anyways. Use both sides of the paper for printing, copying, or writing. Often people use only one side of the paper for printing or photocopying; such practice should be discouraged. You can also set your printer’s default settings to print on both sides. Size reduction can also be applied for non-official documents to save paper.

Fax and memos are one-page documents and mostly end up in the trash after a single read. Paper from such documents can be utilized when a scratch paper is needed. Furthermore, instead of using fax and paper memos, it is beneficial to deliver the same files via emails and e-memos. This will save you paper and reduce your office waste; it will also make file organization easy and following up on given tasks more efficient. To reduce paper waste, bills, invoices, and other related services should also be switched to online channels. Workers should be encouraged to share documents via cloud sharing services rather than printing them.   

There can always be more done to reduce waste even further. However, in light of some essential Go-Green office tips, you can start with the advice mentioned above and later move on to the more sophisticated details on this matter.