How To Make Your Company Green

Posted by Chad on June 16, 2008 under Workplace |

It doesn’t matter whether you run your business out of your garage or if you have hundreds of employees - there are a number of solutions to help your company become more environmentally friendly.

Before I start with my five essential tips, I want to share a quick video of encouragement from Google.

“Being environmentally friendly isn’t something you add on, but something that can be a part of your corporate culture and the way you do things.” These are words to live by! Now on to the list…

Step One: Make Sure Everybody is On Board

The most important aspect of greening your company is to make sure everybody works together for the cause. You should explain your new ideas and direction with everybody in the company to see what their thoughts are. By making it a group decision, your team will feel more accountable for their environmental practices and greening your business will be much easier.

Step Two: Set Up Recycling

Most companies recycle paper and plastics, but you can take it a step further now that everybody is with you. Make sure you have recycling stations for glass, cardboard, plastics, and office paper. For office paper, you should have boxes placed at every work station and printer to make recycling convenient.

Step Three: Make Smarter Purchases

Take a look around your office and see what can be improved. Are you using toxic cleaners or environmentally approved ones? Are you using incandescent light bulbs or CFCs? Are you using OEM printer cartridges or remanufactured ones? By making the right choices, you can quickly change from having things to hide to hitting your stride.

Step Four: Cut Back

There are a number of simple changes you can make to decrease your water and energy consumption. For water - only use the dishwasher when you have a full load, don’t leave any taps running unless they’re in use, and encourage employees to apply water-saving tactics in their homes. For energy - turn off all printers, computers, lights and energy strips at the end of each work day.

Step Five: Keep Each Other Accountable

Since everybody agreed to be on board, your company needs to work as a team. As they say, a team is only as strong as it’s weakest link. If somebody is consistently failing to address environmental issues, then anybody on the team should feel free to approach the situation in a constructive manner.

According to The Daily Green, a large percentage of Canadian and American office workers are annoyed by environmentally destructive actions in the workplace. Here are the top 10 office environmental pet peeves:

1. Mindless printing resulting in increased waste
2. Leaving lights on
3. Lack of recycling bins
4. Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter
5. Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc.
6. Coworkers not recycling
7. Coworkers not printing double-sided when they can
8. Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing
9. Having to store paper copies of existing, electronic files
10. Leaving computer on and not powering down when going home

Office politics can be difficult at times, but open communication is the key to having your business run as efficiently as possible. By having your company work as a team you’ll notice the benefits extend far beyond the environment. While helping the environment is certainly reason enough to make your company more green, this decision will also improve your in-house teamwork.