20% of offices go paperless, making a significant effort to reduce their impact on the environment. According to a recent survey, storing your work digitally is the way forward towards making your office green and healthier for the environment.
There was a recent survey made by Seareach in which they aimed to find what makes your office green and which elements play an important part towards an improved workspace.
- Paperless – Work is stored digitally 20%
- Labelled waste bins – Suitable for recycling 18%
- Solar panels for electricity 14%
- LED bulbs – Use less energy and more efficient 12%
- Green heating 9%
- Reusable bottles 7%
- Bike facilities 6%
- Electric car charging points 6%
- Motion-triggered lights 5%
- Plants and natural light 3%
I’m always on the look out for more ways I can be environmentally friendly, particularly at work when I know there are new processes that could be introduced to make our office slightly more greener.
Here are some of Seareach’s tips on how you can make these changes in your office.
Go paperless – Scan and archive paperwork to help to move completely digital. The more you can store digitally and the less paper you use, the more you will transform your office into becoming green. I feel like this is one of the easiest things you can do to be more environmentally friendly, and let’s be honest, who wants a desk covered in unnecessary paperwork when you can have it all stored efficiently on your computer?!
Label recycling waste bins – Clearly labelling your waste bins will help and encourage everyone to recycle. With clear and concise instructions, it makes it easier for everyone to follow.
Solar panels for electricity – Solar panels will enable you to have lighting and run lower power appliances. The photovoltaic cells use the sun’s energy to provide a green renewable energy source.
Installing LED bulbs – The energy consumption of LED lights can be up to a 75% saving, compared to halogen bulbs. This results in much less energy required and is a cost-effective effort towards your office running costs.
Green heating – The cheapest source for heating and is very efficient. Easy and cheap to install and performs well.
Reusable water bottle(s) - Bring in your own water bottle that can be refilled at work. From this, you’ll reduce the number of discarded plastic bottles and cups. This is something we are already really good at at work as we don’t have plastic cups available for people to use. Even just investing in some good glasses can be a good start.
Bike facilities – Providing a bike rack can encourage employees to cycle to work, cutting down pollution and helping with general health and fitness. I mean I would cycle to work if I didn’t live an hour away from the office…
Electric car charging points – Electric cars provide more energy efficiency up to 85-90%, over ICE (Internal Combustion Engines). These are overall much greener and don’t require expensive fossil fuels in order to operate.
Motion-detection lights – Having these all-around communal areas helps improves energy efficiency. These can be ideal in rooms or shared rooms used less frequently, such as small meeting rooms. This will save energy if people are in and out and often forget to turn off lights - whoops.
Plants and natural light – Having plants in your office will aesthetically soften the work areas with boring colours and can help oxygenate the office. I am all for filling the office with more plants!
Speaking about the study, Stuart Jailler at Seareach commented:
“As you can see from our list, there are various ways we can all help the environment. By contributing little by little every day, we all can do our part towards creating a healthier environment, reduce the number of waste that we generate and start recycling more.”
He continued:
Interestingly, storing your paperwork digitally came out as favourite from our survey results. Non-essential paperwork, inefficient waste going to landfill and not being recycled and storing your work online, was primed the most important part towards making your working environment green. This was closely followed by clearly labelling your waste bins for recycling.”
*This is a collaborative post but all thoughts are my own.
