How to make your workplace greener

Have you ever walked through a business district at night and wondered why there were so many lights on in the high-rise offices? In most cases it’s not down to an army of workaholics putting in a late shift – many companies make a conscious decision not to flick the switches when the last person leaves.

It may sound like a minor issue, but thousands of offices across the country running up unnecessary electricity bills on a daily basis will not only make the light bulb manufacturers very happy, but contribute heavily to the ever growing environmental issues we face.

Unless you’re an Office Manager, there’s little you can do personally to change this apart from mention it to whoever is responsible, but it does raise the issue of how you can reduce your workplace carbon footprint.

Technology has gone a long way to helping the paperless office become more of a possibility – emails, instant messages, PowerPoint presentations and USB sticks have made printers almost redundant. Many offices have even removed their fax machines in an effort to reduce paper use.

Even within Internet companies like Monster, there are still certain individuals who aren’t totally comfortable not having a printed record of their work.

To help those slightly less engrained in the electronic age, easily accessible recycling bins are a must and a whole industry has grown up around the issue. Many collection companies are so concerned about our wasteful nature they operate on a not-for profit basis to encourage companies to sign up for their service.

Another way to help out is to make sure you always shut your PC down fully. That includes switching off the monitor, not just leaving it to go onto standby mode.

According to the National Energy Foundation, “PC screen consumption can often represent a third of the electricity consumption in a modern office. Most of the wasted energy is given off as heat, and in an air-conditioned office, half as much energy again can be used in getting rid of this waste heat in summer.”

There is an argument that regularly switching your PC on and off actually uses more energy than leaving it on. It’s really just a question of frequency – downtime at evenings and weekends does have a benefit but there’s no need to turn off for your lunch hour or a long meeting.

So that covers what you can do at work, now let’s sort out your journey there and back.

Public transport is the obvious way of reducing individual impact, with car-pooling an ever more popular option. Choosing to cycle or walk will bring health benefits along with environmental brownie points.

And finally, it’s worth considering if you even need to go into your workplace at all. Many companies now encourage their employees to work from home, not necessarily for ‘green‘ reasons but it would certainly have an impact if millions of us could eliminate our commutes.