Going green is all the rage at home and in the office, these days. As the world around you becomes more environmentally conscious, you may want to take into account some of these tips to help reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Below are ten unique ways your business can go green.
Switch to Alternative Resources For Your Power
One of the easiest way to make a huge step forward in your company’s green initiative is to move off of fossil fuel-based energy and install solar panels on your building. Not only is it a cleaner alternative, but also it can wind up saving you a lot of money in the long run.
Replace Old Office Appliances
Older appliances tend to be heavy users of energy, and even if you’re on solar power, you may want to replace any old fax machine or break room refrigerator with updated appliances with the EnergySaver label on it.
Install Motion-Detecting Lights
As busy adults, sometimes we forget things. One thing that office workers tend to forget a lot is to turn off the lights in their office when they leave for the day or when they go out to lunch. This forgetfulness can add up, so try and curb this energy pull by installing motion sensors on all indoor lights. Even if your employee forgets, after a few minutes, the lights will turn off and it will save you some money.
Switch to Online Deliverables
It used to be necessary to mail or deliver important documents or deliverables to your client or customer. When you mail or FedEx packages, it takes transportation and fuel to get the package to its destination. It may not seem like a huge step, but limiting the shipments can greatly reduce greenhouse gases.
Encourage Office Carpooling
Though not directly your company’s responsibility, every one of your workers has to get to the office, which means that’s going to be a lot of cars on the road. If you encourage carpooling among your workers, it can save them money in gas and can help the environment in turn.
Reduce Paper Redundancy
If you look at pictures of offices just ten years ago, you’d probably notice walls completely filled with filing cabinets with all sorts of important documents. The truth is, you may still see this in modern offices, but it is simply unnecessary in this day. People still like to hang on to their hard copies of documents, but the filing system can be completely computer based, which can not only save you space, but also time as you can search a digital database much faster than a cabinet of files.
Use Recycled Paper and Other Recycled Materials
As much as we’d like to get rid of all dependency of paper use in offices, it’s not going to go away that quickly. Instead, reduce the affect you have on the environment by using only recycled paper in all paper goods used in your office. This can include the paper cups in the kitchen and the toilet paper in the bathrooms.
Encourage Recycling
People like Alex F Bouri of Envipco and Seament believe that recycling cannot be stressed enough. Going even further than using recycled products, it is important to recycle the waste you make that can be recycled. Have specifically marked cans in the kitchen for paper goods, cans, and glass so that your workers can easily recycle what they can.
Start Composting On-Site
Composting has become a very popular practice in homes over the past decade, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place in the office. Office composting has become very popular as well and can be a great option if everyone pitches in enough to learn how to properly compost.
Minimize Overtime
You may not think about how overtime affects your office’s energy use, but people working well into the night can seriously use up more energy than you think. While overtime can sometimes be inevitable, encourage your workers to stay to the usual schedule and help minimize the electric usage.
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John is an entrepreneur and writer living in Michigan. He enjoys writing about sustainability, green initiatives, and the environment. When he’s not working or writing, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children.