Are you looking for more ways you can be environmentally friendly with your daily life choices? With global warming coming to the forefront of people’s minds now more than ever, lots of us are rethinking our habits and how our lifestyle choices may be affecting the environment.
These changes to our lifestyle shouldn’t just stop at home. Many of us are now going back to the office for work now, and there are lots of things we can be doing there which will have a positive impact on the environment, too.
Fletchers Waste Management, who provide waste management and skip hire in Sheffield, see first hand the amount of waste that commercial buildings produce every day, so have put together some tips on how we can all improve our carbon footprint in the office.
1. Reusable water bottles
Single-use plastic has become one of the key contributors to global warming and more often than not, these bottles will end up in landfill if they haven’t been properly recycled. If so, they then take a shocking 500 years to decompose, which is a daunting statistic when you think about just how many plastic bottles are thrown away each day.
By encouraging staff to bring in reusable water bottles for work, or even better, providing them with a company-branded one yourself, they will get into a positive habit of using their water bottle and not purchasing plastic ones. Buying a bottle of water is seen as a convenient shopping habit, you can cut out the need for this by encouraging reusable ones.
Branded bottles are also free advertising for your business, which is a bonus for you as well as the environment.
2. Clean green
Although this is not often talked about, most cleaning products are actually very harmful to the environment. Although affordable, cheaper products contain hundreds of harmful chemicals that affect the environment and our health.
Commercial buildings are seen as the biggest contributor to this as office spaces need to be cleaned more often, usually twice a day. These harmful chemicals are being released into the water stream and the air, and the packaging is often plastic and not properly recycled.
However, there are cleaning products available that are safer and more environmentally friendly. The ingredients are naturally derived and do not contain harsh chemicals. Although they can be more expensive, it is an option worth looking into.
If you do not make the decisions, it could be worth speaking with the cleaning company or the office manager and sharing your concerns, sometimes conversion is all it takes to make a positive change.
3. Switch off policy
Whether you’re at home or work, it can be very easy to accidentally leave lights on in rooms that we aren’t using anymore or leave electrical items plugged in when we leave for the day. This can be combatted with an easy switch off policy in the office. This policy is to encourage and remind staff to turn off lights and sockets that are not being used.
Before everyone leaves for the day, try nominate a member of staff who will do a sweep of the office to check for things that are still left switched on. This new policy can be easily sent to staff via email and chased up regularly to remind them. You can also put posters around the office close to main switches as an added reminder.
These three changes can be very easily implemented into the working environment, but there are lots of other things we can all be doing. Try researching more online or having an open discussion with colleagues to see if they have any suggestions on ways you can improve your carbon footprint. Each small change can make a big difference.
