How To Green Your Office

Greening Up Your Office

First Published Date: June 25, 2010

When you want to go green, you often look at how you can go green within your own home. However, we spend eight hours a day at the office, so it is important that you also look at greening your own office. There are many ways that you can do this, but here are the easiest that will not only save the environment, but save your office money as well.

1.    When computers, copiers, printers and other equipment are not being used, make sure they are turned off. Over the weekend, be sure to unplug things that are not being used because that will save you even more money. At the very least, ensure your electronic devices go to standby so they use much less power.

2.    Whenever you use paper, recycle it. This is one of the easiest things for a company to do and all it involves is putting out a recycle bin near where people will use it. It is very easy to do it and it will save the environment a lot of wasted paper.

3.    You should buy 100 per cent recycled paper, refillable ink cartridges, non-toxic highlighters and more in your office. Environmentally friendly office products are cost-effective and very good for the environment.

4.    Look at the possibility of telecommuting. Many companies are now allowing their workers to telecommute because it can save them money. This generally means that you work from home so that you do not have to drive to work. This increases the amount of time a worker is available, and it also cuts down on car pollution.

5.    In the office, encourage car-pooling, public transit use, as well as walking and biking to work. It is a good way to help your employees get to know each other, get exercise and help the environment at the same time.

6.    Don’t print off your e-mails unless you absolutely need to. Often, we have copies of e-mails printed off and on the computer and there is no reason for this. Just keep e-mails backed up on the computer and ask others that they don’t print off the e-mails you send them.

7.    When you have coffee and food in the office, promote buying local and organic food. You can do the same with coffee by buying organic and fair-trade coffee within the office. You should also ask that employees bring their own mugs so that disposable coffee containers are not being used within the office.

There are many things that you can do in the office if you want to save money and the environment. The ones mentioned here are just the easier ones and the ones that you can do right now without a lot of cost. Other things you can do include putting in skylights that you can use to bring in more natural sunlight, changing the heating system within the building and more. The office is a great place to go green when you know how to go about it

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on June 25, 2010.