How to turn your office green

While you may be able to do all you can to turn your home green with energy saving lightbulbs, a grey-water system, recycling bins and a geyser that is timed to turn off after use, it can be rather difficult to do so in an office space you share with numerous people. But the good news is that there are a number of simple ways to do your part in turning your office green, without having to try get support for a number of expensive, brand new systems, regimes or practices. Here are a few simple ways to make sure you’re Keeping it Green at the Office.

Office supplies

Office supplies are often made out of plastic that ends up filling up landfills every time it is discarded. Finding office supplies that can be reused and refilled will reduce the amount of plastic dumped into landfills, and also reduce the amount of money you spend on office supplies. Currently, only 17% of plastic is recycled in South Africa, so choose pens that can be refilled with ink cartridges, purchase journals, diaries and calendars that have been made out of recycled paper, choose ceramic mugs for tea and coffee instead of plastic or paper cups and, lastly, only print when necessary in order to avoid wasting paper on notes or tasks that could easily have been recorded via email or through your online office management system.

Picture: Supplied

Waste

Recycling is incredibly easy once a station has been set up, and it  helps preserve the world’s resources. According to Treevolution, for every metric ton of paper recycled,  17 trees are not cut, 40% less energy is used, and 50% less water is used. Purchasing a bin for food waste, and another one for recyclables such as glass, plastic and paper will encourage and make it very easy for people to recycle goods that would otherwise have been dumped together with food waste and thrown into landfills. Offering a bin for recycled goods will ensure that these products get sent to a recycling plant, and eventually get reused in the form of another product or packaging. Most office parks or areas have a centralized system where the waste from each office is collected and sorted. But, if your office is small and does not have a system in place, employees can easily take turns once a week to take the recycling to one of the many recycling plants available.

Electricity

Keeping an office running all day requires a constant supply of electricity, but small changes in the way you use the electricity can reduce the amount used in a month and therefore the amount you pay for it.  Simple habits like turning off your computer at night and switching lights off when rooms are not being used are good habits to get into. But you can go further with electricity. Energy saving light bulbs can easily be purchased from all supermarkets and, according to the World Wide Fund (WWF) they can use between 20 and 33% less energy than a standard light bulb. The need to switch on lights can also be reduced dramatically by ensuring you keep windows and blinds open, and by painting your office in light colours. The natural light that will be allowed in will limit your need to switch on lights.

Picture: Supplied

Bathrooms 

With the droughts that numerous provinces have experienced and are still experiencing at the moment, using water wisely is a big concern. You can do your bit within your office bathroom by turning all taps off properly to prevent drips, reporting any leaks you might find, and placing bricks in the toilet cisterns to displace the water so that less is used to fill it up. A more drastic but simple solution to reducing the amount of water used by the toilets would be to replace the older toilets that use between 9 and 12 litres per flush with newer models that use about 6 litres per flush.

While these tips are certainly not revolutionary, they are simple habits that you can get into to turn your office into a green zone. From ensuring your office supplies are recyclable, your waste is recycled, you don’t use electricity unnecessarily and your bathroom is not an area in which water is wasted, you can do your bit to save and use resources wisely. And if you’re thinking “I want to sell my house fast and look for a house where I can start a home office”, these tips can be easily applied to the space you choose for your work activity.