SYLVIANE NUCCIO

Making your work environments more eco-friendly or “green” is something that all businesses should shoot for.

Not only does it look better to every person that the company comes into contact with, but it feels good as the owner and it often saves money too. Businesses generate considerable waste from non-reusable products to the power usage not being monitored carefully. There’s always room for improvement.

Let’s look at a few ways to create an eco-friendlier environment at work.

Commercial Solar Energy

The thought of investing in solar power may have crossed your mind, but maybe it’s always seemed too complicated. Perhaps, you didn’t know where to start?

However, there are now reliable solar installation and management in the country that can survey your business property, determine where an installation might be located, verify your past energy usage and determine whether a collection of solar panels could replace your usage of the electricity grid.

Once it’s clear that it’ll be profitable to go ahead with adding solar power – usually it pays for itself within 3 years or so – then a firm can be hired to take care of it for your business. Any excess power generated can be sold back to the electricity company which helps recoup the initial investment sooner.

Be Careful About Energy Use

The next best thing to getting solar installed if you don’t have a suitable location is to get the firm focused on energy management. For instance, monitors and laptop screens that are set to automatically turn off after 15 minutes idling saves money. Getting in the habit of everyone turning off printers, PCs, copiers and other electrically-powered equipment avoids wasted energy. Even a computer in standby mode is consuming power; just less of it.

With the lighting, use fluorescent eco-friendly bulbs that cost a bit more but use far less energy and last longer too. Encourage staff to adjust the window blinds to let more natural light into the office too.

Go Digital and Almost Paperless

Make a point of using digital resources wherever possible. Secure cloud storage and PDF documents are easily accessible inside and outside the office. Arrange for a flatbed scanner to take physical documents and turn them into digital versions for storage.

When it’s necessary to print things out or take a photocopy, use recycled photocopy paper like Planet Ark A4 paper that’s recycled pulp with its ink removed. It’s FSC Certified and carbon neutral too. Also, why not make a point of the fact you use recycled paper on your business correspondence. It looks good and it stops some people misunderstanding why you’re not using a fancy letterhead on non-recycled paper stock.

Furniture – Recycled or Second-hand

Most businesses buy new desks and office cabinets as a matter of course. Buck the trend by making a point to purchase either furniture made from recycled wood or buy second-hand. Gumtree Australia usually has a few listings for different office furniture that’s been previously used but generally is in good condition.

Also, when your office furniture is on its last legs, you can offer it to recycling sites or offer it to a local charity that can sell if for a profit.

Along with the above suggestions, even small things like going vegetarian with the catered office lunches or for meetings, or simply not overordering food prevents unnecessary food and plastic container waste. You can always ask for suggestions from staff to solicit eco-friendly ideas that you haven’t thought of. Going eco-friendly in the office has an unmistakable feel-good factor that’s not to be discounted; it’s also one more reason to encourage job applicants to work for the company.