Talking About Green

Let’s face it; the office isn’t always the most pleasurable place to be. Despite this, a large percentage of us spend our days in an office slugging it out with a temperamental computer and an even more temperamental set of colleagues.

So why should you make it green?

If you are a director or a manager, making your office a more environmentally friendly place will:

• Save you money
• Create a positive atmosphere
• Be a business attribute

If you are a member of staff, making your office more environmentally friendly will:

• Provide evidence for promotion/pay rise opportunities
• Make your office a better place to be
• Give you a positive attitude

Thanks to the sheer number of offices and office workers, offices account for a significant proportion of the wasted energy, pollution and failed sustainability in the UK. Think of all the computers that get let on, or the number of people that drive to work when they could use public transport.

Here are 8 top tips that you can act on now that will help to make your office a better place for you, for your colleagues and for the world.

1. Turn Off the Lights

By using less lighting, more energy efficient lights or by installing movement sensitive lighting you will ensure that you waste as little energy as possible. This will save you money and reduce the amount of carbon produced providing the electricity.

2. Eliminate Paper Use

Where possible, move your presentations, brainstorming, internal information and correspondence, note taking and other paper based exercises onto computers, laptops, tablet PCs and smart boards. This will significantly reduce your paper use and will make it harder for notes etc. to be lost.

Where you have to use paper, try to always print on both sides of a sheet and select paper that is 100% recycled.

3. Recycle Everything

Start recycling every material that goes through your office. It is possible to recycle just about everything from ink cartridges and computers, to drinks cans, furniture and food waste. There are local recycling centres in most towns and cities in UK.

4. Minimise Travel

Avoid organising meetings outside of the office. If this is unavoidable, endeavour to set up video conferencing. Encourage colleagues to use public transport to get to work or set up a bike-to-work scheme to provide staff with cheap bicycles.

5. Plants

Introduce plants to your office spaces. This not only makes it a more pleasant place to work, it increases the oxygen levels in the office and reminds colleague to have a green attitude.

6. Meals

Take control of where you source the ingredients for any meals your office supplies. If your meat comes from Peru, your fish from Sri Lanka and your orange juice comes from Florida, change your supplier who sources locally or at least in the UK and one that provides Fair Trade produce.

7. Stationery Supplier

Similarly, your choice of office stationery supplier can have a big impact on the amount of energy you use as a company. By selecting one that uses an efficient delivery system, provides green products like refillable inkjet cartridges and recyclable computer accessories, you will make your environmental efforts much easier. Plus you can save money by finding a supplier with better rates while you’re at it.

8. Update Computers

One final tip is to upgrade all your computers and monitors to energy efficient ones. Flat screen monitors for example use a lot less energy than old boxy screens. Recycle your old computers and make sure that every employee turns off their computer and monitors every night and has an energy saving function for when they are on breaks.

If you can follow up all of these tips then you will have gone a long way to becoming a much more energy efficient office. You will also save yourself a great deal of money and feel proud of the efforts you and you company are doing to help protect our environment.

Thanks in advance.

Kevin Gallagher is a keen recycler. He recently changed his office stationery supplier to one that provides fully recyclable Envelopes and computer accessories with better energy ratings.