Fighting climate change often starts small, within the office where there’s not much of an impact to begin with. However, when people start to change their ways for the good of the environment, it soon becomes a trend that others will follow and that can make a huge difference.
Of course, people won’t make a difference right away. It will take years to undo what decades of pollution have done to our planet. But we have to start somewhere, and we have to start now, or pretty soon, it won’t matter anymore.
Therefore, reducing the carbon footprint within the office may seem insignificant and pointless, but even the little things matter when the survival of our entire species is at stake.
Use green appliances
As we already know, there are numerous different devices all around offices ranging from printers and computers to air conditioner and even fridges. All of these devices consume energy, some more than others. This is especially true for the older generation of appliances and, let’s be honest here, a lot of offices still have those.
Therefore, if you want to reduce the carbon footprint at your office, it’s time to make some changes. The best thing to do would be to replace old appliances with new, energy-efficient ones. However, a lot of business owners see this as a major and unnecessary undertaking.
What they fail to realize is that by replacing old appliances that consumed too much energy and required frequent maintenance, they can not only reduce their carbon footprint but also save money in the long run. Energy-efficient appliances can cut your electricity bill by almost a half.
Use green technology
In most cases, the technology used at the office can mean the difference between having a major carbon footprint or an insignificant one. Take telephones, for example.
Traditional landlines have a ton of hardware, wiring and equipment that will eventually end up as waste. Replacing that obsolete technology with modern solutions provided by environmentally-friendly companies can really make a difference.
In fact, Nextiva VoIP phone systems operate over the Internet, which means there’s a significant reduction in wasted hardware. You just need an Internet connection, and the service gets to your company via the cloud. It’s cost-effective and eco-friendly, and it will help reduce the carbon footprint at your office.
Moreover, there are more benefits to using cloud-based technologies than it seems. Cloud-based technology can help you implement a paperless office by allowing you to scan and store all the files and documents in the cloud. Those files are available on any device anywhere in the world whenever you may need them.
Recycle everything
Whether it’s food, plastic, paper or electronics, offices oftentimes create a lot of waste. Usually, that waste doesn’t get recycled, which creates more waste and ultimately boosts your carbon footprint. So, you’ll have to recycle your waste if you want to avoid that scenario. Aside from going paperless, you can introduce proper bins for each type of waste, such as paper, organic waste, electronics and plastic.
Encourage and educate your employees to use these bins accordingly. Furthermore, make contact with proper waste disposal services, so you make sure that office waste doesn’t end up in the nearest dumpster.
After all, you want waste recycled, not moved somewhere on the pile of other waste where you can’t see it. Also, if you still use office supplies, which everyone does, don’t throw it away immediately. Instead, create an Up-cycle program where employees can reuse old supplies if they are still any good before ordering new ones.
Educate employees
The best way to reduce the carbon footprint at the office is to create a unique and environmentally-conscious culture. That means educating employees about eco-friendly ways and methods they can reduce the carbon footprint at the office.
For example, educate them to turn everything off when they leave the office. That includes lights, devices and other equipment. There’s absolutely no need for any of that to be left on when no one is around. Moreover, teach them about heat conservation.
That includes closing doors and windows, so that warm air doesn’t escape the office. In addition, teach them to regulate the thermostat. Keep it on during work hours but reduce it by 10 to 15 degrees overnight when no one is there. You can annually save 1% on your energy bill per degree reduced on the thermostat on periods of 8 hours.
Reducing the carbon footprint at the office isn’t that difficult. All it takes is a good strategy, and everyone on board for it to happen. Reducing the carbon footprint even by a little can be a major difference in fighting climate change.
