Whether your motives are financial, or you are actively trying to be more environmentally conscious in your business, there are plenty of ways to encourage ‘green’ behaviors in the workplace. We’ve taken the liberty of assembling a few of them for your consideration:
Reduce Power Consumption
This one is pretty basic: make sure that a room’s lights are powered down when that room is not in use, or if the entire light bay isn’t necessary for the room’s occupants. The same can be said of many of the peripherals that are used throughout the workday. Get into the habit of powering down these devices and switching off lights if they aren’t necessary. Labeling switches can help to make it easier to turn off certain light bays and avoid lighting more than they need to.
Switch Out Disposables
From coffee cups to pens, from plates to staplers, the average office is filled with waste-producing or disposable items that frankly don’t need to be. Switch out the paper and plastic in the kitchen for real coffee cups, plates, and cutlery, and invest in refillable pens and staple-less staplers. Invest in reusable coffee filters (and when the time comes to replace your coffee maker, consider one that doesn’t need them in the first place). Sugar packets and creamer cups can be replaced by refillable dispensers. Yes, the difference it will make is small, but it is still a difference--and will likely save you money over time.
Remote Work Capabilities
Enabling your employees to work from home can have many positive impacts on your business’ environmental footprint. First of all, your office will be using less energy, and the emissions-producing traffic that an employee creates while driving to the office will be eliminated.
Use Energy-Efficient Options
Keep your critical business technology from expending too much energy by utilizing shared resources whenever possible, like public cloud options. Microsoft Office 365 and Google Drive can enable you to cut back on the in-house infrastructure you have to maintain (and power), while boosting your remote work capabilities. Furthermore, if your hardware is due for a refresh, it may be time to upgrade that as well, as more up-to-date solutions have been designed to be more energy efficient.
Consider Laptops
On the topic of energy-efficient upgrades, you may want to move any of your employees whose tasks can be supported by a laptop device over to one, rather than a desktop. Laptops use far less energy than the alternative, and also help to simplify the prospect of remote work.
Recycle Old Equipment
As you make these upgrades, you should also be careful to properly dispose of the equipment you are replacing. Computers cannot just be thrown out as anything else would be, as they contain materials that are hazardous to the environment. Once you have ensured that all data has been wiped, you should entrust that responsibility to a professional who operates in an environmentally responsible fashion.
Minimize Printing
Technology has all but eliminated the need for paper in the office through the many collaborative solutions available today. Adopting these eco-friendly options can help reduce the amount of paper your office expends in its operations.
Carpool
We’ve already touched upon how the daily commute can impact the environment. Carpooling can help to significantly decrease this impact each trip by a significant margin. It can also make an excellent team-building time for your staff.
For help in putting some of these environmentally friendly solutions in place at your company, lean on the professionals at Data Net. Give us a call at (760) 466-1200 to learn more.
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