A lot of homes have tried to become greener in the last decade, but we’ve not seen the same numbers with businesses. It probably comes down to the fact they’re too busy trying to make money. Fortunately doing things correctly will allow them to do both at the same time.
Most of the ways to make an office greener will allow businesses to save money. It’s worth it and all they need is a push in the right direction. If you have your own business it might be hard to know where to start, so let’s look at a few simple changes you can make.
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Always Refill Your Printer Cartridges
Even if you recycle empty printer cartridges the traditional way it’s not sufficient. They need to be recycled by a specialist if you want to do things properly. It’s a lot easier to refill them when they run out.
You’ll definitely notice the difference in price if you use your printer on a regular basis. Refilling also means you don’t have to worry about old ink seeping into the ground and causing problems for centuries.
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Cover All Your Windows In Low-E Film
Do you know how much you spend heating and cooling your office throughout the year? Apparently up to 35 percent of the energy you waste is due to inefficient windows and commercial buildings tend to have a lot of them.
Things could be different if you covered the windows in low-E film, which is a lot cheaper than replacing them. Once you’re finished you won’t have to use as much energy and your bills will drop dramatically.
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Use Reusable Dinnerware In The Kitchen
Buying inexpensive plastic cups is only beneficial in the short-term, but look towards the future and purchase reusable dinnerware for your office kitchen. You could even ask employees to bring in their own from home.
When you look at some of the stats they are scary. For example, people throw away enough plastic cups and cutlery each year to reach around the equator hundreds of times. You could stop this from happening immediately.
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Start To Build Bike Racks Outside
If you have bike racks outside it will encourage more employees to cycle to work. You could even help out by giving employees loans for bikes, plus a place for them to jump in the shower before reaching their desk would help too.
It would lower the amount of dangerous greenhouse gasses floating into the sky. As an added bonus, when people cycle into work they’re likely to be more productive. This will mean each employee will make you more money.
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Lots Of Environmentally-Friendly Products
When you look around your office you’ll see lots of products. Do you know how many of them can be replaced with environmentally-friendly alternatives? There are a lot more out there than you think.
If you dig even deeper you’ll know it’s even possible to replace dangerous cleaning products with green ones. These will help your employees stay healthier and the number of sick days they take each year should drop.
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Loosen Up On Your Company Dress Code
Unless you work in an industry where it’s imperative everyone looks sharp at all times you should loosen up on your dress code. Wearing a tie to work seems like an old fashioned way of doing things these days.
Once employees start to wear clothes they feel comfortable in your energy bills will go down. You can’t let everyone wear anything they want, but relax things a little because you’ll benefit as much as the environment.
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Phantom Energy Should Be Eliminated
Unplugging all the electronics in your office might seem hard, but it won’t be if everyone plays their part. This is so important because when things are left plugged in they’ll use up lots of phantom energy.
This is the energy electrical appliances waste even if they’re switched off. If you look at individual figures it might seem insignificant, but everything will add up slowly over the course of a whole year.
It’s Easy Enough To Start Right Now
Nothing we’ve spoken about would be terribly hard to implement, so you should start taking action now. We all need to work together if we’re going to have an impact on the environment. It will only slow things down if you procrastinate for months.