There’s almost something therapeutic about beginnings. A clean slate, a new day or the beginning of a new year prompts us to erase bad habits and look for ways to improve ourselves.
Take a look around you and think of the measures you could take to improve the world, not just yourself. With that in mind, here’s how to strive for a sustainable office in 2018.
Reduce Paper Waste
One of the best and most simple ways to bring sustainability to the office is to look at your paper use habits and see what you can do to reduce waste. For example, try to share notes and documents electronically with your team. But, if you need a hard copy of a presentation, then make sure to print on both sides of the paper. Also, try to use a mobile device to write down ideas or suggestions during meetings. But, if you are a paper and pen person, then write on both sides to reduce waste and turn your office green.
Unplug
It can be hard to make your employees develop the habit of turning off electronics, lightning, and heat every evening if for years on end they didn’t have to worry about this issue. A viable solution would be to create a main plug from which you can turn off all electronic devices in the office.
Another excellent way to cut energy consumption is to encourage your employees to disable the screen savers on their computers. Instead, ask your IT department to change the settings on the company’s computers.
Urge your employees to turn down the brightness on their monitor so that they use less power. Talk about the importance of closing the applications and programs that they’re not using and the impact they can have on their computers’ performance.
Related: Sustainable Business Resources
Choose Better Office Products
Maybe you don’t have the funds to afford a complete office redesign or to install a solar rooftop. However, you can implement small changes that can help create a sustainable office. For instance, you could switch to a new paper brand and look for a manufacturer that uses environmentally-friendly and sustainable practices. Double A Paper, for example, has a responsible and revolutionary approach to paper making. They utilize the unused space between rice paddies to grow their specially cultivated trees.
Create Green Monthly Challenges for Your Team
If you want your employees to adopt more sustainable practices, then turn it into a fun game. For example, you could create a competition and challenge your employees to go one month without using plastic utensils. Offer a small prize to the winner, such as a voucher, a bottle of good wine, and so on.
Encourage Employees to Bring a Desk Plant
A desk plant will not only improve indoor air quality and help create a better environment for your employees, but it can also enliven the office space. Encourage team members to decorate their desks with a plant that is easy to care for, such as Aloe, cactus or lily.
A lot of business owners wrongly assume that the only way to create a sustainable office is to invest heavily in renewable energy. But, as you can see, even small changes such as unplugging the computer, reducing paper waste or bringing in a desk plant can turn your office green.