Five Important Areas Where Your Company Can “Go Green”

By Jennifer Blanchard, HRTools Staff Writer

Everywhere you look these days you’ll find cars, houses, products and companies going green. And with good reason. Which is why you should consider creating a greener culture for your company. A greener workplace is a healthier, more productive workplace, and by adopting some simple, environmentally friendly policies, you’ll be able to cut costs as well. 

Here are five important areas where your company can go green: 

Office Supplies

Obviously in order to be productive, there are supplies your employees need, like pens, paper, ink cartridges and computers. But there are a few easy changes you can implement that will increase the longevity of the office supplies. 

• Encourage the use of pencils, which last longer than pens, or purchase refillable mechanical pencils and refillable ink pens.
• Purchase recycled printer paper and envelopes for printers, copiers, faxes and office mailings.
• Refill ink cartridges if possible. Depending on the type of ink cartridge your printers use, stores like Walgreens will refill them for about half the price of purchasing a new one. 
• Install and use office furniture that is made from recycled materials. There are plenty of companies manufacturing green office products, such as chairs, desks and cubicles.
• Although not technically supplies, scattering plants around the office is a way to brighten things up, and absorb indoor air pollution. 

Utilities

There are plenty of things you can do inside the office to reduce energy and save money in the process. 

• Use natural daylight whenever possible.
• Remind employees to turn off lights in their office or work area when they’ll be gone for more than 15 minutes.
• Invest in Energy Star-rated light bulbs, which use two-thirds less energy than regular bulbs.
• Install motion sensors so lights turn off automatically when the room/area is not in use.
• Make sure all computers are shut down and turned off by the power strip at the end of each work day.
• Keep the office thermostat set at 70 year-round. Encourage employees to keep a sweater or jacket in the office for colder days.

Lunches

Going green at lunch time is easy and extremely healthy. There are lots of things you can do to promote “green” lunches in your office. 

• Give each employee a “go green” pack containing a mug with your company’s logo, a plate, bowl and a three-piece utensil set, which will encourage them to wash and reuse after meals instead of continually using throw-away items. Make sure to have biodegradable soaps, dishwashing rags and recycled paper or cloth towels available for them to wash their dishes with.
• Keep additional mugs handy for office visitors to use in place of plastic foam cups.
• Remind employees that a good way to be healthy and green is to pack their lunch everyday, rather than ordering takeout.
• If employees do order takeout, advise them to place large orders (with a group of people) to reduce the amount of packaging waste.
• Provide filtered drinking water to reduce waste from plastic water bottles.  

The Drive to Work

According to TreeHugger.com, a website dedicated to green news, solutions and product information, “Americans spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush-hour traffic, which adds up to 3.7 billion hours and 3 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.” There are plenty of simple solutions for reducing gas and commute times. 

• Promote carpooling in your workplace. With so many employees working in the same place, there’s a good possibility many of them live near each other, and by promoting carpooling, you can ease the strain of commuting and help save the environment from harmful gas emissions. TreeHugger.com boasts that eight billion gallons of gas will be saved each year if every commuter car in the United States carried just one additional person.
• Offer a bonus/incentive program for employees who carpool, take public transportation, drive hybrid cars, bike or walk to work.  
• Give employees the option to telecommute a few days a week, or everyday if it’s not mandatory that they be in the office all the time. With the availability of video- and teleconferencing, e-mail and instant messaging, working from home full-time is a real possibility. According to TreeHugger, “Telecommuting works for 44 million Americans, including the entire TreeHugger.com staff,” and “Cuts the energy and time spent commuting by 20 percent.” 

Go Paperless

Banks, credit card companies and other billable service companies are now offering “paperless” statements, which means bills and statements are available online, and the company sends a monthly e-mail alerting you that your new statement or bill is ready for viewing. This cuts back on not only mailing costs, but also on the amount of paper being used. You can also go paperless in your office. 

• Encourage employees to think before they print, especially if the items can be stored on their desktop. Going paperless reduces clutter and waste.
• Post all company policies, employee handbooks and other important documents online, rather than handing out printed copies. This reduces the use of paper and ink, and allows you to update the documents quickly and easily.
• Place recycling bins all throughout the office for employees to toss out paper when they are done with it. Then provide them with information about what can be recycled: everything from paper to envelopes to junk mail.
• Advise storing e-mails electronically using folders in Outlook.
• Install PDF-making programs on all office computers. By turning documents into PDFs, it makes it simpler to store them digitally, and also allows for easy readability on the computer screen.
• If employees have to print, tell them to print only what they need. This means using the “print preview” option to make sure there aren’t any unnecessary pages that will be printed. 

By taking some simple steps, you can almost effortlessly move from your current office culture to a healthier, greener office culture, and increase the morale and productivity of your employees.

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The information contained in this document is for general, informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. This information is not a substitute for the guidance of a professional and should not be relied upon in reference to any specific situation without first seeking the advice of a qualified HR professional and/or legal counsel regarding applicable federal, state or local laws. HRTools, Insperity and their respective employees make no warranties, express or implied, and make no judgments regarding the accuracy of this content and/or its applicability to a specific situation. A reference or link to another website is not an endorsement of that site or service.

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