Smart Tips to Help Your Office Become More Green

We all do our best to support environmental sustainability, and although our actions can seem small, each one makes a difference. From recycling a Starbucks cup to disposing of old electronics properly, you can make your community that much closer to being sustainably aware and mindful of the wear and tear that we, as a population, unfortunately inflict every day on our beautiful planet.

Personally taking action to make green choices can be easy, but in an office setting, steering a large group of people in that direction can definitely be a challenge.  After all, this is an environment with bins full of paper waste and recyclable goods, not to mention wasted energy buzzing constantly. But although it’s a challenge, it doesn’t mean it can’t be conquered; a good mantra to remember is: “Everything stems from an idea and starts with a leader.” Following are some great tips and tricks for incorporating sustainable strategies into your workplace.

Re-Purpose Your Paper and Make a Kitchen Compost-Friendly
Paper is one of the most wasted and reusable products. So that’s the good news: it can not only can be used to make paper and other recyclable items again, but there are  many ways to reuse it within the office. For instance, when printing for internal purposes, use the “two-printer” strategy. Use one printer for regular color or black ink printing, and one that prints only black ink on recycled paper – i.e. pages that still have one blank side. This decreases the amount of clean paper being tossed in the garbage. Incorporate this strategy into your office and place a “paper-specific” recycling bin next to the printer for proper paper recycling.

Next, start a small composting and biodegradables station in your office kitchen. (Check out these instructions for getting started.) These are extremely affordable and easy to maintain. To get people involved, post a sign above the bin, and send out an email to colleagues on your floor about your new composting strategy. Ask maintenance if they are able to dispose of it daily or weekly, and if not, take the good deed upon yourself. Karma always comes back around.

A Frugal Font Helps the Planet
Talk to your manager or director about getting Ryman Eco font, a sustainable font created by Grey London, as the default typeface on all computers within your department, or maybe even your entire organization. The font is really lovely looking, legible and uses 33% less ink when printed compared to other default fonts like Arial, Times New Roman and Georgia. And the best part is that it’s free to download!

Also, never dispose of your empty ink cartridges. They are actually quite valuable. Most major office supply chains, such as Staples, which provides tips here about this issue, will happily purchase them from you or recycle them on your behalf. Because the parts can be used for building new ink cartridges and other plastic items, they will pay anything from $0.50 – $2.00 per cartridge, depending on the brand.

Power Down and Preserve Energy
There is an astronomical amount of voltage that goes into powering an office, especially since most offices don’t power down at the end of a workday – that can really add up when it’s a 40-plus-floor building. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to personally reduce the amount of power you use. For example:

• • Don’t use a screen saver; set your computer to go to sleep after 5-10 minutes of not being used. According to a study on this matter, screensavers use twice the amount of energy  of a computer that is actually in use.
  • Lower the brightness of your computer display; it saves energy and is much easier on your eyes.
  • Keep all printers, fax machines and scanners either off or in “sleep mode” when not in use. Most computers have an energy-saving mode as well, so try and stick with that throughout the workday.
  • With smaller work spaces, keep the use of air-conditioning and heat to a minimum: if needed, try to work with the building manager to keep your office’s thermostat at an economical temperature.
  • Also see what they can do about limiting lighting in spaces that already have  plenty of natural sunlight. Not only is excessively bright illumination unnecessary in these types of spaces, but natural light actually increases productivity and improves sleeping patterns, since it helps regulate your body’s sleep-wake cycle.
    • When charging phones and electronics, use USB adapters and plug them into your computer. Cords take up more energy and are often left plugged in with nothing attached to them; electricity is still running through them, which can be extremely wasteful as hours go by.

Lastly, don’t forget that a little friendly competition is a great way to help keep the sustainability ball rolling! Get your colleagues involved in thinking up ways to implement more planet-saving strategies around the office. Have weekly or monthly contests with gift card giveaways or a trophy given to the winner each time. They’ll definitely love the bragging rights.

Doing your part for our planet can be easy in any setting, either home or work, with help from the people around you. Take the lead to make sustainability awareness a thought on everyone’s mind. By “leading by example” at work, you can influence colleagues with your actions and even encourage them to take habits home with them, including composting in their personal kitchen, keeping electronics off, and unplugging cords when not in use. This makes green awareness a daily strategy to embody mindful living at both work and home.