Essentials For an Eco-Friendly Office

Essentials For an Eco-Friendly Office

No company can stand aside from global environmental problems: climate change, deterioration of air and water quality, erosion and a decrease in soil fertility. All of this is due to the thoughtless exploitation of resources to meet the ever-growing needs of humanity.

The concept of "green office" is not revolutionary new, since its elements have been introduced in world practice for over 30 years, the concept itself has been around for about 20 years.

Therefore, in our time, as never before, eco-offices have become a relevant and reasonable solution to the problem of protecting nature.

Modern office

One of the hallmarks of today's leading company is its corporate environmental responsibility. Just imagine the level of danger in a modern office:

Furniture is chosen solely for its appearance, and not on the basis of environmental friendliness of materials.

In the office kitchen, there is an assortment of cookies, the ingredients of which often resembles a table of chemical elements.

You can see a huge amount of plastic dishes in the bin.

What are we doing wrong?

At the business level, you can start by building an eco-space in offices. For many companies today, a green office is the norm. Taking care of the environment leads to an improvement in the condition of our planet. Even if this argument has not convinced you yet, here is another — creating an environmentally friendly office is beneficial:

Green office consumes fewer resources;

It is cheaper to maintain;

Comfortable working conditions make employees more efficient.

Why is it important?

Firstly, offices are record holders for paper use. Average consumption is about 50 kg per week, which is equivalent to 2 trees. It turns out that in a year, one average company indirectly cuts down a small grove. Secondly, in an office, one person spends 3-4 times more electricity than at home. The 100-person firm burns about 90,000 cubic meters of natural gas per year. Thirdly, it consumes more than 15,000 litres of water.

What to do?

1. Discard the disposable

Avoid disposable tableware and bags in the office. According to Greenpeace, the production of 1,000 disposable plastic spoons requires 10 times more energy than the production of 1 steel spoon, even if it has to be washed a thousand times.

Disposable tableware can be easily replaced with glass, ceramic or metal. Disposable plastic bags — with practical canvas bags.

2. Introduce separate waste collection in the office

Set up separate containers to collect paper, plastic, glass and aluminium. To dispose of food waste, you can install a food waste disposer in the sink. If you have a cleaning company, make sure they know how to properly separate waste in your office.

Organise the collection and recycling of old cartridges, batteries and office equipment, and safe disposal of batteries.

If you have a lot of recyclable materials, buy storage space and a press that will reduce the number of raw materials stored by up to 10 times.

3. Use recycled paper and print on both sides of the sheet

Make sure to buy recycled paper, both for printer and toilet.

Use both sides of the sheet for printing. On modern printers, this feature can be configured automatically. Draft documents can be printed on the unused back of the paper. Also, avoid printing emails and make corrections to documents online.

According to statistics, a ton of saved paper (about 400 reams of A4 office paper) can save 20-25 trees from cutting down.

4. Save energy

Replace incandescent and fluorescent bulbs with LED and compact fluorescent bulbs. They consume half the electricity and do not contain mercury. If a mercury lamp breaks and mercury spills out, toxic fumes are immediately released from it, which poison the human body.

The automatic lighting control system turns off the light when it is not needed and saves 25% of energy.

If you work at night, install multi-rate meters. They make it possible to pay for electricity at different rates — depending on the time of day and also reduce resource consumption at power plants by levelling the operation of power plants.

You should also clean the lamps and lampshades from dust since they shine worse due to dust; remove scale from electric kettles, as it reduces the efficiency of heat transfer; configure computers so that it goes into standby mode when not in use; do not leave chargers plugged into an outlet when there is no device to be charged, as they continue to consume energy, but use it not for charging, but for heating, this often causes fires.

Also, motivate your staff to reduce the energy costs at your workplace.

5. Save water

Check the condition of all taps and plumbing in order to exclude leaks. By the way, you can install flow regulators on the taps, they deliver only 5 litres of water per hour, and lever taps or sensor faucets mix water faster, and less water flows out during temperature control.

Buy a dishwasher; it uses significantly less water than a human. For example, a family of three to four people spend about 150-300 litres of water per day on washing dishes, while a dishwasher only spends 7-20 litres of water.

Install a toilet cistern with two flush modes. A typical flush requires 6 litres of water. Modern split-flush toilets consume 4.5 litres for a full flush and 3 litres for a half-flush.

6. Buy from responsible manufacturers

Give preference to building materials, wood and paper that are approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This means that their producers comply with the law and participate in the planting of forests. Materials labelled PCF (Processed Chlorine Free) and TCF (Total Chlorine Free) do not bleach materials with environmentally hazardous chlorine and its compounds.

Try to buy as many as possible items that are made from recycled materials. For example, change all carpets, rugs and mats with the ones which are made from eco-friendly materials which you can find in Mat Shop.

7. Educate employees

Employee education can be the first step towards a green office. Tell employees how the green program will work in your office, why it is done, and how each employee can help. Your colleagues need to understand why you are asking them to save paper, electricity, and water. Be prepared for repetitive questions and scepticism. The key to an effective green policy is the teamwork of all employees.

Conditions for effective implementation of the "green office" program

1. Distribute responsibility: which of the employees will be responsible for the financial part, who will control purchases, internal communications. Once the goals have been set, sub-committees can be created that will be responsible for specific elements of the program, for example, energy use reduction, procurement principles, office air quality, and worker health and safety. This group of employees is responsible for the goals of the green office program and monitors its development.
2. Conduct an audit of the company's resource consumption. Calculate how much the company uses electricity, water, gas; how much does it cost to take out garbage, buy paper, office supplies, etc. To establish a benchmark, you need to collect and analyse the company's utility bills over the past two to three years.
3. Set a deadline that will stimulate the development of the program.
4. Tell employees about the success of the program. Inform people about both the tasks and the results of their implementation. And don't forget to reward employees who contribute to the program.
5. Training activities for employees. These can be presentations, seminars, corporate picnics.
6. Revision of the goals and objectives of the "green office" program. Indeed, in the process of implementation, what was important at first may turn out to be secondary after some time or completely irrelevant.

Conclusion

All the above steps will help not only to make a real contribution to the preservation of the environment but also help to reduce the cost of maintaining an office and improve your image in the eyes of your clients and partners. Remember that the most effective way to make your office eco-friendly is through employee campaigning. Let all your employees know that the modern world needs to be green.

Alexis is a Sydney-based part-time writer and a full-time mom of two. Her words offer advice and inspiration to those who desire to improve their lives. Outside of the office, she takes pleasure in spending precious time with her youngsters.