Making your office eco friendly in 3 easy steps

As we spend more time at the workplace than anywhere else changing how you use your resources at work is a good place to start in helping to protect the environment. Making the workplace more energy efficient and eco friendly will make the workplace more enjoyable as well as lowing the impact we have on the environment.

If every business made a few small changes it could make a big difference but it is important not to think of it as a one off project, you need to make it a key part of your key company values.

The 3 keys words to use and remember when making your workplace more environmentally friendly:

• Reduce
• Recycle
• Re use

What can you Reduce?

• Making sure you turn off lights, printers and computers at the end of the day will make a big difference. Its easy to forget to turn your computer off while in a rush to get home but if everyone made this small change it would make a big difference to the environment.  You can even set your monitor to its most efficient setting to save yourself from having to remember to turn it off each night off e.g so it will  automatically turn off if not in use for 15 minutes etc. Sound simple? It is! It may seem like a small change but everyone has to start somewhere and every little change soon adds up.
• Make use of natural light whenever possible and reduce the amount of additional lighting you use. Where additional lighting is needed use energy efficient light bulbs.
• Don’t buy stuff you don’t need, sounds obvious but when purchasing items for the office ask yourself “do we really need these?” are you subscribed to the same magazine as many other staff members could you cancel your subscription saving paper, packaging and postage?
• Turning down your office heating by just a couple of degrees will help the environment and could save you  around 10% on your heating bill.
• Only print documents when completely necessary saving on paper, ink and printer running costs.  When you do need to print, use 100% recycled content paper.

What can you Recycle or Re Use?

• Use recycled products including paper, notebooks and refillable ink cartridges. Could you use the other side of the paper you’ve just thrown into the bin? Make sure you have recycle paper bins around the office for people to use rather than them throwing them into general waste bins
• Buy fair trade tea and coffee for office break rooms and encourage mugs rather than disposable cups.
• Encourage staff to walk, cycle or run to work. This not only benefits the environment by reducing carbon emissions but can also improve their health and well being. And remember a happy and fit workforce is a productive workforce!
• Purchase supplies locally this will reduce fuel costs from the supplier and reduce the carbon emissions as well as helping local businesses in your community. You could also order in bulk to cut down the number of deliveries your receive saving fuel and reducing pollution. You could ask them if they want the packaging back to re use themselves or you could recycle it in your workplace. Many suppliers now offer discounts if you return packaging as this helps the environment and helps lower their packaging costs.

Contrary to popular belief an environmentally friendly approach to your business environment is not always costly.  In fact it can actually add value:

• Reduction in your energy bills will improve your bottom line
• It can improve your working environment, improving staff morale and motivation so your staff will work harder which will benefit the business and minimise staff turn over.
• Enhance your business image and make you the favourable choice for possible clients.
• By saving money in certain areas you can spend more in others such as marketing to expand your business

Here at Msm the environment is important to us.  We are constantly thinking about our carbon footprint and our policies ensure we minimise any harm to the environment.

• We remove all packaging from site and arrange for it to be recycled
• We have procedures in place to recycle all our paper and cardboard waste as well as ink cartridges etc
• All computer monitors are set to a timer to turn off automatically if they have not been used within a certain period of time
• We check all printers and lights etc are switched off before we leave at the end of the working day
• We carefully plan the use of all company vehicles, staff share vehicles to site and car pool to work whenever possible to minimise fuel pollution.

With guidelines becoming more and more stringent it is a good idea for all businesses to start thinking green sooner rather than later. And remember as well as helping the environment you can cut down on business costs and improve your bottom line. With benefits like these there really is no reason to not start your eco friendly business procedures today!