Want your office to be more eco-friendly? Looking for the best Go green office ideas?
Here are some tips on how your company can save money and energy by taking advantage of natural light, having meetings without paper, and letting people work from home.
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1. Eliminate Single-Use Cups
Cups that can only be used once are bad for the environment. Plastic and Styrofoam cups don’t break down, so they can stay in landfills for years or end up in our oceans and rivers.
Try to bring your water or coffee with you in a bottle or thermos that you can use again and again. You will be more likely to stay hydrated and will feel good knowing you are helping the environment.
2. Embrace renewable energy
Green energy sources like solar and wind power are easier to get to than ever before. You can install solar panels on your roof or build big wind farms.
3. Use Paperless Notebooks
Did you know that every day, the average office worker throws away about 2 pounds of paper? Technology can help us use less paper, which is good.
Use notebooks without paper to take notes and cut down on paper waste.
The Rocketbook Notebook is a big hit with our readers. It is the most popular product that is good for the environment and has a lot of good reviews on Amazon.
People love this wired notebook that can be erased and used over and over again. It looks and feels like a normal notebook, but it is better for the environment.
It can even save your notes in Google Drive, One Note, and DropBox.
4. Go paperless
“All you have to do is keep your digital files on your computers and mobile devices instead of in file cabinets. Also, make it a habit to look at digital documents on your computer screen instead of printing them out.
According to a study done by Catalog Spree and PaperKarma, if the US cut its office paper use by just 10% by going digital, it would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.45 million metric tonnes, which is the same as taking 280,000 cars off the road for a whole year, Digneo said.
5. Use WASTE Walks to cut down on carbon emissions and save money.
A WASTE Walk is when workers take a step back, walk around the floor, and look for things that are being done that aren’t needed.
It’s a fun way to get everyone in your office involved in coming up with ways to make your office less harmful to the environment.
Also, WASTE Walks don’t need any extra money, resources, or people to work. They use everyone’s ideas to figure out what needs to be fixed and what can be done easily.
More importantly, because the employees came up with the ideas, they are more likely to stick.
6. Encourage eco-friendly ways to get to work
Getting around is an important part of life. But there are some things that people can do that might have less of an effect on the environment and help keep it clean.
Carpool
It might be a good idea to share a ride with family, friends, or coworkers. So, instead of three or four cars, there will only be one. This is a way for couples or family members to get to work together if their jobs are close to each other. Instead of taking two cars, they take one and drop the person off on the way to work and pick them up at the end of the day. Carpooling is an option on many ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft.
Transportation
Using public transportation is another option. This is easy for people who live in big cities with good train systems. Some cities also have bus lines or light rails that help people get around in a way that is good for the environment.
Some people have found that biking or even skateboarding to work is a good way to get to work and get some exercise at the same time.
7. Use natural light as much as possible
If your office has windows, make sure to use natural light as much as possible. Keep curtains, shades, and blinds open during the day so you don’t have to turn on the lights.
For a more automated solution, you can turn the blinds in your office into “Smart Blinds” that you can control from your phone, Alexa, or Google. With this DIY kit, you can turn your existing horizontal blinds into blinds that move on their own. Use the blinds you already have to save time, energy, and money.
Conclusion
There are a lot of green office ideas that your company can use right now.
Start small and use ideas for going green in your everyday life.
Then, if you can, work your way up to management and convince them to put your ideas for going green into action for the whole organisation.
