Today a lot of people are learning how their everyday actions can reflect their principles and their sense of ethics. With that said, if you are a company that values the conservation of nature, then you must be able to reflect your principles even in the smallest of actions.
When you walk the talk, people will find you more trustworthy and responsible and they will know that your word stands for something. If you value your business’s reputation as well as your company values, then make sure that you are deliberate with everything you do.
On that note, if you’re a self-proclaimed green company then you must practice sustainability in your own office. If you still haven’t, then here are several ways you can develop a sustainable and eco-friendly office.
Table of Contents
Why You Should Go Eco-Friendly
Before you go into finding out the different ways that you can develop an eco-friendly office, let’s first cover why you should be eco-friendly. If you’re not a company that is in the green industry, this is an important question to cover.
There are several reasons you should go green in the development of your office. First, you save more costs than people would believe. Although the initial expenses to making an office eco-friendly can be high, the money needed to maintain it is quite low.
Aside from that, an eco-friendly office has a significant say in the overall satisfaction of employees. Plus, they are more productive.
Due to the fact that green offices usually encourage the use of natural light, the exposure to this white light betters the overall well-being of workers.
Practice Recycling
Recycling should be one of the first things that your office should think of if you want to incorporate sustainable practices into it more. You can systematize and make it a habit for your employees to recycle their trash instead of throwing it away. If you plan on hiring commercial cleaning services, you can even ask them to use green methods plus recycle.
The key to making it easy to adopt sustainability in the office is by making it convenient for them to do so. Make sure that you have recycling bins in all important corners of the office so that they won’t be tempted to throw away their trash instead of recycling them.
Some of the materials that you should encourage employees to recycle are the papers and various other paper products that there is in the office. Aside from paper, food leftovers can also be recycled through composting.
Add Indoor Plants
A green office will not be very “green” if it doesn’t have any indoor plants. Indoor plants will give a significant boost to the appearance of any space, especially such a professional place as an office.
Not only is it great for decorative purposes, but it also serves as a way to better indoor air quality. Air quality can affect people’s health and work productivity so putting in indoor plants is always a positive for any space.
Pothos and Spider plants are great indoor plants. Pothos can survive with little sunlight and shaded areas, plus you only need to water it when you see the soil is dry. For Spider plants, they only need partial light and they can survive one to two days without water.
Maximize Natural Lighting
Another way to create a sustainable and eco-friendly office is by designing it in such a way that you receive as much natural lighting as possible. Natural light has multiple benefits to your office and your employees.
First off, it reduces energy costs because you don’t have to spend money on lighting as much. Aside from that, it can also make space look large and inviting which will have a positive effect on your employees’ moods.
Not only that, but it will also make employees more productive because of the natural white light that they are receiving. Natural lighting makes your office look more attractive while boosting the overall well-being of everyone in the office.
Do Paperless Transactions
Nowadays, there are a lot of alternatives to using paper for your important documents or other files. You also don’t have to fax anything because it’s so much easier to send a PDF file over email so there’s not much of an excuse to not go as paperless as possible.
Aside from that, having numerous paperwork can be a hazard in itself if they’re all stored in one place. One small fire could ignite an inferno and if there are other calamities, it will be quite easy to lose sensitive information.
Thus, by going paperless, you aren’t only reducing the waste that you generate in the office. You are also make it convenient to accomplish transactions. At the same time, your data is more secured when they’re digital.
Embrace Renewable Energy
Lastly, a major step towards sustainability for your office is by investing in renewable energy sources to run your office. There are so many choices out there right now and it will continue to increase as the years pass by.
You can invest in solar energy to make use of the amount of sunlight that you get in your office. Wind energy is also a viable option if your particular location is able to set up a wind farm for you to tap into.
If you so choose, you can contact your electricity supplier to find out if they have any green energy plans available for your business. Discern the right plan for you and you’ll be powered by green energy in no time.
The costs for a sustainable office are not exactly cheap. However, you’ll see a return on investment if you give it some time because it’s low maintenance.
Not only does sustainability help you uphold your principles but it also improves the overall well-being of your employees too. There are only benefits to gain from being a more eco-friendly and sustainable office, so why not start sooner?
Tags: Eco-Friendly Office
