After our first series on eco-gestures at home, this time we will focus on eco-gestures at work. As stated in our previous article, adopting an eco-citizen behaviour is all about becoming aware of the social or environmental consequences of our daily actions and changing our bad habits. Herewith a selection of easy simple actions to adopt daily, on your workplace. It’s time to « go green » at work and who knows ? You might even make your colleagues eco-friendlier !
A better waste paper management
Paper is the primary consumable used in office. On the long term, it can be very costly, both financially and ecologically. Limiting paper consumption can also have beneficial impacts on a company’s finances. Firstly, apart from the paper itself, it can help to reduce the consumption of other related expenditures such as ink and energy.
Herewith some easy tips, which will help in reducing overall paper consumption:
• Don’t print unnecessarily, try to go paperless. Most stuff can be handled online or on-screen and also think about digital archiving.
• Try not to print in colour, prefer the standard and draft printing mode.
• Prefer the duplexing i.e use a printer that does double-sided copying.
• Look into the printer settings for the following option: print 2 screen pages in one single sheet.
• When buying paper, make eco-friendly choices e.g buy recycled and chlorine free paper.
• Shred old paper to use as packing material.
• Use old sheets of paper for note taking or use mistake prints as scribble paper for your kids.
Double-sided printing allows for a quick saving of up to 30% on total paper purchases. Paper accounts for 75% of the tonnage of waste generated by office activities. Only half of this is actually being recovered for recycling!
Limit energy consumption
It is important to realise that many equipment or even simple daily manipulations that we take for granted at work, require in fact a lot of energy. Indeed, there are several broader ways to reduce energy usage in your workplace.
Herewith some simple actions, one can easily achieve for saving the electricity consumption on the long run:
• Turn off projectors and screens in conference rooms when not in use.
•Request motion sensing light switches, to turn off unused lights automatically.
• Replace overhead lights with compact fluorescent light bulbs or LEDs. These bulbs use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times as long.
• Invest in an energy-saving equipment: printer, monitor, screen,…
• Switch to energy-saving settings by setting your computer to sleep mode when you are away for short periods of time. A computer in sleep mode can save 60-70% of power. Don’t use a screensaver – these use more energy rather than saving it.
• If possible switch to a laptop or a thin client. These use less energy than a desktop computer.
• Peripherals such as scanners, printers, speakers…continue to consume power even when not in use, don’t forget to switch them off and to unplug them.
• Same for your mobile phone, after charging, unplug same from the charger. This will extend the life of your battery and don’t forget to remove the charger from the outlet.
One needs to take also into account the environmental impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) which is considerable, in terms of energy consumption. To limit the energy consumption of sending e-mails, minimize the size of the documents before doing so. Same must be as light as possible (low-resolution pdf, compressed files, hypertext links instead an attachment …) Moreover, when answering your correspondent, always consider removing unnecessary attachments.
A healthier workplace environment
Making the environment more pleasant at work and eco-friendly will increase your enjoyment at your workplace. Also improving the health and well being of the work environment can drastically reduce the costs of running a business. The best way to stay involved in the green scene at work is to get others involved. Don’t hesitate to share your practices and wisdom with your management and colleagues.
Herewith some tips to create a healthier workplace environment:
• Open your windows to increase a healthy air flow with cleaner air to breath.
• Green your desk or office with a plant. Plants absorb indoor air pollution and increase the flow of oxygen.
• Drink from the fountain instead of bringing water bottles. You can bring your own durable, reusable water bottle for constant refills.
• Use a ceramic/glass coffee cup instead of paper/plastic cup in the mess room.
• Join a ride share or carpool. You can set up a carpool calendar with your colleagues living in the same vicinity.
• Ask your management for telecommuting, or working from home whenever possible.
• Encourage the office staff to join or start a recycling program. There are many items in an office that you can recycle. Think about having a recycling station/bin for paper, cardboard, E-waste, plastic….
Manufacturing companies can engage themselves in eco-designing. Eco-design actually encourages companies to strive and conceptualise their end products so that they will have minimal environmental and health impact throughout their life cycle.