We start this article with a fact of life: most of us spend the majority of our waking hours at work. Ergo, our biggest environmental impact will occur there. Here are some easy daily choices a responsible business can make to show the planet and humanity some love. From natural cleaning products to lunch options – read on!
Waste Reduction
Recycling is a big domestic program, but the wheels often come off at the office. Raise awareness among the different teams, install lots of recycling bins but primarily encourage using fewer materials. Using less is the first step to reducing waste, with recycling as the second step.
The P-Word – Plastic
Plastic is having a devastating impact on our environment – land, water and marine. Two plastic ‘mugs’ of tea a day at work will deliver you a result of close to five hundred plastic cups annually. Add to that any plastic spoons and you have a significant pile of plastic developing from one person’s usage. The solution? Use reusable mugs, plates and cutlery.
Lunch Thoughts
Believe it or not, the word that will be most effective here is “Restraint”! Avoid over piling food, muffins, toast and other items onto your plate that regularly results in leftovers being pitched into the bin. If there are leftovers, try to save them for dinner. If you make lunch at home, save the peels and turn them into compost or collect them in a packet in the fridge and drop a bag at a community farm once a week for their compost.
When ordering in, try to do orders for multiple people to reduce the carbon footprint, from the amount of packaging bags to other items.
Lastly, avoid ordering bottled water. Convince your company to supply bulk filtered water.
Thermal Stabilisation
Warming up an office consumes gigawatts of energy annually and produces millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide! And that excludes cooling figures.
Insulate your offices, warehousing, factories, etc. Save money and save the planet.
Be stricter about open doors and windows when warming or cooling equipment is turned on. Close blinds, curtains or shutters at the end of the day to retain as much of the internal temperature as possible.
Eco-Thinking
Promote active eco-thinking amongst your work teams. Switch lights off in bathrooms when leaving, and adjust heating or cooling by a few degrees closer to the outdoor temperature. Use natural cleaning products for bathrooms, kitchens, desks and the whole office.
Ensure that all PCs and laptops are turned off during lunchtime and at night. Turn off printers, coffee machines, speed-heat water heaters and anything else you can think of.
Conclusion
With a little bit of thought, some minor changes can make a huge annual impact.
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