What is your office doing to help the environment?
With significant savings on energy costs, improvements on employee productivity and satisfaction, and many more benefits, businesses are understandably increasing their commitment to sustainability each year. If you don't feel your office is doing its part for the environment, then don't worry. The list of easy ways your office can become more environmentally friendly is endless, from something as simple as using a smaller font to installing motion sensor lights around the building.
In part three of our blog series, ‘The future of office furniture’, we take a look at some of the different ways offices are setting themselves apart from their competitors and becoming more eco-friendly.
Eco-friendly products
Employees in the U.S. throw away over four million pens every single day. To counter this, more and more businesses are taking an eco-friendly approach by using recycled stationary to help reduce the impact that wasted products have on the environment. We’ve also seen companies investing in reusable pens and stocking their stationary cupboard with ink cartridges, rather than pens, so that employees are almost forced to cut down on pen wastage.
But it isn't just stationary that businesses are taking a more eco-friendly approach with. Companies are also making more of an effort to use natural-based materials for their office furniture, such as wool. Not only are these natural materials better for the environment, but they are often easier to clean than manufactured materials like polyester.
Paperless offices – offices where the use of paper is either eradicated or hugely reduced – are another way that companies are becoming more eco-friendly. With 1.5 acres of rainforest – the size of an average football pitch – being lost every second, the importance of a paperless office is becoming clearer every day. The ever-improving security of cloud storage, and the mass number of files now being stored on computers and digital devices, means that there is often very little need for paper or filing cabinets anymore. Ignoring the long list of other benefits, if these haven't convinced you, then the amount of money your office could save from going paperless should be enough to convince you to at least try it out. Why not calculate your ROI of going paperless?
Working together as a team
Becoming known as a green firm can do wonders for your business. Everyone know that you always get a better job done when working as a team. The feeling of working with your colleagues to do something positive can have a massive impact on the ‘team spirit’ of a company, and can have amazing effects on the productivity and creativity of employees. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that an increasing number of businesses, including Harvard University, are introducing programs to create more sustainable workplaces.
One of the main problems in the past with forming eco-friendly offices has been that employees have had a lack of incentives to go green. But businesses are now encouraging their employees to work as a team to create a more sustainable office by offering group incentives. For example, if a company manages to reduce its paper usage by 50% in the space of a year, they may offer employees a bonus, or a group day out.
Assigning employees who are actively ‘going green’ outside of work, to make up a ‘green team’ – a committee to manage the eco-friendly efforts of the business – is becoming a trend in the modern workplace. This green committee can be a really easy way of getting the green ball rolling!
Remote working
91% of remote workers believe they get more work done when working remotely and 66% of managers have noticed that their employees who work remotely increase their overall productivity. It is clear to see that remote working works, but it also helps reduce the carbon footprint of your office, due to a decrease in employees who would usually be commuting.
Remote working also has a massive effect on other environmental factors in the office. For example, less people working in the office means that less paper, electricity, stationary and other office equipment needs to be used. This can equate to a business making savings of about £9,000 per year, per person, simply by letting employees work from home 50% of the time. With savings like this, it only makes sense that more businesses will be offering remote working options to their employees in the next few years.
As you can see, there are plenty of different ways that businesses can become more environmentally friendly. And it really doesn't take a lot of time or effort to get started! What is your business doing to become more sustainable? Have you got any other tips that we have missed out?
Remember to subscribe to the Carrwood Park blog for the final instalment of our ‘The future of office furniture’ series, where we will be looking at some of the latest trends in office chairs.
Looking for eco-friendly serviced offices in Leeds? With our buildings made from recycled steel frames, furniture made from up to 50% recycled materials, and over 1,200 trees across our 100 acres of land, why not book a viewing at Carrwood Park to find out what we have to offer?
