How to reduce your offices' environmental impact

(02/08/2010)

A recent business poll revealed 92% of office workers believe it is important for businesses to be environmentally responsible but only 51% of companies have a green policy in place.

Making your workplace more environmentally efficient will help conserve resources, lower carbon emissions, save energy and keep bills down. UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of C02 a year – the equivalent of taking five million cars off the road. An environmentally friendly workplace also helps businesses achieve their corporate and social responsibility objectives.

There are several ways to make your office greener and the first is by switching to eco friendly office products. The public sector consumes around 100,000+ tonnes of paper alone. Switching to 100% recycled copier paper, which uses 60% less energy and 50% less water to produce than ‘normal virgin pulp’ is one idea.

Brand new to the market is the office2office Group’s Banner brand 100% recycled copier paper. This is an exclusive ‘cradle to cradle’ product generated from securely destroying and recycling customers “end of life” office paper and delivering it back to the same customer as 100% recycled copier paper. This process means using fewer trees and lowering the overall carbon footprint and is the first paper in the UK which effectively ‘closes the loop’

According to Simon Walsh, co-founder of ShP Limited, we spend a third of our lives at work and businesses are responsible for 40% of the UK’s carbon emission. But although 70% of office waste is recyclable, only 8% is actually recycled.

Most work places have an abundance of old IT equipment, mobile phones, Blackberry’s and laptops. However, many of these unused items lie gathering dust in an IT cupboard or store room. Recycling IT equipment will not only create more space in your office, it will help minimise resources as these items are reconditioned and sold to emerging markets.

To reduce your offices’ environmental impact you need to think reduce, reuse and recycle. What can you do to reduce waste in the office? Look at what you could be re-using and what you should be recycling. Almost half of the UK’s office workers have admitted to regularly throwing paper in the normal rubbish bin rather than the recycling bin.

£120 million is wasted by UK businesses every year just by leaving the lights on. Increase your company’s profitability by cutting out unnecessary costs. Office workers can make a positive difference to the environment and your bottom line.

Top tips on how to make your workplace a greener space:

1. Place plants around your office. Not only will they enhance your work space but they can reduce air pollution in enclosed spaces.

2. Buy recyclable products, paper and wood products that are FSC-certified.

3. Recycle all old IT and electrical products rather than storing them.

4. Set up a green ideas scheme to encourage and reward colleagues who come up with novel energy saving ideas.

5. Switch off computers, photocopiers and lights at the end of the day.

6. Buy and use recycled paper.

7. Consider replacing one or more desktop computers with a laptop; laptops are the most energy-efficient computer/monitor combination.

8. Do not leave your office lights on overnight.

9. Print one copy of memos and other inter-office documents and circulate them rather than printing off a separate copy for everyone.

Related categories:  Electronic and electrical waste recycling   Environmental technologies for offices and commercial   Paper and cardboard recycling