A primary benefit of running an eco-friendly office is that your business creates less waste and pollution, making the world a better place for everyone. But there’s another great reason to be energy efficient: saving money. By wasting less water, paper, and electricity, you’ll find your overhead costs decrease significantly, which means more of your money stays where it should – in your wallet.
Here are five simple ways you can operate a more efficient, eco-friendly office:
1. Use a Water Cooler
It’s time to ditch the plastic bottles. Not only are they expensive, but create pollution. An estimated one million water bottles are purchased every minute around the world, leading to an astronomical amount of waste. Instead, office water dispensers provide clean, filtered water to all your employees for less money and a lot less waste. Consider washing cups and mugs in the break room instead of purchasing and discarding paper or plastic cups. There are also numerous drinking water solutions for offices that you should explore.
2. Switch to Paperless Billing for Eco-Friendly Office
You can cut down on paper costs and waste by switching to a paperless billing system. Send your invoices, notifications, and reminders through email instead. It may take some encouragement to convince all of your clients to make the switch. Some of your clients may be a bit old-fashioned and resist the change. Or maybe they don’t have access to a secure computer. Many businesses will offer a small discount to the clients who switch to paperless communications. Most of your customers will enjoy the efficiency and organizational benefits of storing documents electronically.
3. Change Your Bulbs
You can save a lot of electricity costs by switching to energy-efficient bulbs. Hopefully, you’re not using incandescent bulbs, as they require a lot of electricity to run. But even if you use older fluorescent tubes, a lot of energy is being wasted. LED bulbs are eco-friendly bulbs and work very well in an office setting and often have the ability to control color warmth and brightness.
Modern compact fluorescent lights (CFL) work very well in a warehouse setting, especially when a lumens rating over 1100 is desired. Also, consider installing motion-activated lights in restrooms and closets. There is no need for certain lights to be on all day long.
4. Maximize Your Window Lighting for Eco-Friendly Office
In addition to changing your light bulbs to become more eco-friendly, try to maximize the natural light coming in from your windows. Make sure desks and workstations are near windows, and if equipment or furniture is blocking the light, be sure to move them out of the way. Depending on the location of your office windows, you may be able to turn off the lights completely during parts of the day.
5. Use a Recycle Bin
Setting out a recycling bin is an easy way to be more eco-friendly. Be conscious of the cardboard, paper, plastic, and beverage cans that get thrown away. You won’t necessarily save money by doing this, but you’ll feel better about responsibly discarding waste and helping the environment. If you offer plastic cups in your break room, switch to paper cups so they can be more easily recycled. You can enhance these practices by hiring a local waste removal aligned with your intentions of recycling as much as you can. Follow the next link to get more info about what your options are.
Making your place of business more eco-friendly is a great way to minimize waste and pollution, which helps the environment and improves our day-to-day living. It also lowers your overhead costs, making your business more profitable. Touting your eco-friendly standards in your marketing can actually help increase the number and longevity of your customer base. Once you implement a few simple changes, you’ll find a little goes a long way.
