Employees can form big communities in growing businesses, and as a big community, you have a significant impact as well as a chance to make a difference. It’s important to remember that sustainability doesn’t mean just one thing – it can be about reducing energy use, reducing waste or providing employees with opportunities for personal development. All of these things can be combined into an overall strategy that helps your organisation achieve its goals while also ensuring that you don’t negatively impact the environment. Here are some tips on how to make your office more sustainable.
Food in the office
Food is an integral part of every workspace and there are many ways in which we can make our eating habits more sustainable for our planet.
- Eating seasonally is very important. Eating only what’s in season will help lower carbon emissions from food transportation. It also means more fresh and better-tasting ingredients.
- Recyclable and reusable coffee cups or water bottles are a great way to reduce the unnecessary plastic use on a daily basis. This extends to making sure your lunch vendor uses recyclable packaging too.
- Try introducing and encouraging plant-based food in the office when ordering in group lunches and event catering. Plant-based eating is not only beneficial for our health but for the climate too. Decreasing our meat intake is a great way of lowering carbon footprints and slowing climate change. Luckily for you, there are plenty of delicious vegetarian and vegan options to try on our menu!
- Providing utensils at the office like forks, knives and spoons can dramatically decrease the number of single-use plastic cutlery that is being used.
Recycling
A lot of the material we use today is recyclable yet less than 10% ends up actually being recycled. Encourage your fellow colleagues to recycle everything possible — including paper towels, coffee cups and plastic containers — and compost any organic waste (food scraps, coffee grounds). And make sure your office provides enough recycling options to deliver on this.
It’s also extremely important to educate your employees about recycling and how to do it properly. Many people end up throwing items in general waste purely because they lack basic knowledge about what can be recycled. Put up printed posters that can help remind people what to put in what bin.
Electronics Management
There are numerous best practices that can be used to cut energy costs and energy use. Informing employees to turn off office equipment and light switches while not in use with stickers is a good idea. It is also possible to install automatic timers or motion sensors.
It is worth checking if you can replace any of the older equipment with the new energy-saving models. When doing this, always check out places that refurbish and/or reuse parts of old technology to make sure you limit as much waste as possible.
Sum Up:
Changing habits, especially in big environments like the workplace might seem overwhelming at first. That is why it’s good to start off with small and gradual changes like ordering food from a sustainable provider, putting more recycling bins in the office or simply turning off your electronic devices whenever you’re not using them. Whichever you decide to start with, we hope our tips gave you some ideas on how to implement these changes in your workplace!
Find out more about Feedr’s promise to push the industry forward in sustainability efforts.
