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Offices can be rife with waste—from electricity to paper, from furniture to ink. And yet there are many easy steps a business can take to significantly reduce its impact without having to make radical changes. In fact, there are quite a few changes an office manager can implement without staffers even catching a whiff of green intent.
So, if you're looking for a few easy New Years Resolutions to green up your office, look no further. Here are 7 super easy first steps you can take to make your office greener, plus 3 bigger steps for when you're ready.
- Install Paper-Saving Software for Print Jobs
A big expense for offices and the environment stems from the office printer. Web pages, emails, and other documents often cause a lot of wasteful printing. But with some easy-to-install software, some of which is entirely free, print jobs can be quickly condensed to save paper, ink, and money. - Utilize Power saving modes for office equipment
Stand-by mode doesn't automatically mean energy savings. It still takes energy to run devices that are on stand-by. Computers that are left on over night are big sources of this wasted energy. Luckily, there are many simple software tweaks that can make computers into energy sippers. It would be a smart move to send an inter-office email to staff about ensuring that their computers and other equipment is turned off at the end of the day. Also, here is a guide for buying energy efficient office equipment. - Green Your Business Cards
Business cards are an important part of marketing your company, but those tiny cards are energy intensive are they to produce, and so many just go to waste. There are greener ways to utilize business cards, many of which will make your company stand out and be more memorable, helping to market your business even more!
One idea is to utilize a text-based business card. You simply give an ID number to a person and they can get all of your info via text message. If you want to stick with printed cards, there are a couple clever options, from using recycled card stock and soy-based ink, to using business cards that actually grow a little green! - Green the Break Room
Break rooms are a big source of undercover wastefulness. You can save money, prevent waste, and green up the globe by implementing a few tiny changes. For example, stop providing any paper cups—require staff to bring their own mugs instead.
Take out the vending machines. Vending machines suck up a lot of electricity and, for drink machines, promote the use of plastic bottles. Instead, provide healthy snacks in a basket on the counter, and use an energy-star rated refrigerator if the staff really wants a place to store cold beverages and food items.
Speaking of beverages, you can also make a huge impact buy buying only fair trade, organic shade-grown coffee for the office. While it's more expensive than something like Folgers, the superior taste and far lower carbon footprint make it well worth the extra few dollars. You can even save the grounds for staff or local gardeners to use in their flower beds. - Ditch the fax machine
Fax machines are so 1999. These days, there are excellent software programs that make this piece of machinery obsolete. Using a scanner (often already incorporated into printers), PDF converter software and email, you can get clearer, cleaner copies of documents out to clients in record time. There are many free versions of PDF software, or inexpensive versions that have added features. As for receiving faxes, this too can be done over email. Services such as efax.com or myfax.com are great places to start looking for a program that fits your needs. Less printing, less ink, less paper, less energy...less money spent! - Don't Replace...Upgrade!
Keeping your office equipment for as long as possible is one of the most money and earth-saving things you can do. But you don't have to sacrifice performance for a little carbon savings. Upgrading aging equipment is easier, cheaper, faster and greener than replacing them. Hard drives, memory, and processors are the main components you might want to replace, however, technology is so advanced these days that you may not have to replace them for a very long time, considering they are now more powerful than most offices need them to be. Should equipment start slowing down, what you most likely need to do is just give the computer a tune up. - Green Office Furniture and Supplies
Of course, even the office furniture can be greened up. If you need to buy new furniture items and supplies, you might as well make sure they're as green as possible. Check out our listing of green office supply sources so you can find everything from chairs to paper. - Make Your Website Greener
If you're ready to invest a little more time an effort into lowering your carbon footprint, it is a great idea to green your website. Taking steps like using eco-friendly web hosts and servers, energy efficient design techniques, and carbon offsets go a long way in reducing the environmental impact of running a website. - Track Your Footprint with Openeco
If you want to hammer out the numbers and really see the improvements you're making in your business, you can track your progress with OpenEco.org. OpenEco is a great resource for tracking your emissions, getting advice for reduction, and comparing how and what you're doing to similar businesses and buildings in your industry. - Offer Your Staff Telecommuting Options
Ever more popular these days is the idea of telecommuting. If it's possible for your office to be run remotely, consider allowing staff to telecommute whenever possible. This could allow you to cut down in a lot of areas, from supplies to maintenance to even the size of your office space. It also means fewer work-related emissions from commuting, and likely more satisfied employees. Telecommuting might not be an easy transition at first, but many offices are able to successfully implement flexible work spaces, and it could be a great solution for your business.
Three Bigger Steps:
For more on how to green up at work, check out our How to Go Green: At Work guide!
Read more about going green at work:
Set Up a Home Office, a Comprehensive Guide
5 Tips For Staying Healthy While Working At Home
Adopt your Office Kitchenette—Bring in a Dishtowel
How to Close Your Office Before a Vacation
Stuff Happens Episode: The Office
Be Subtly Green at Work and Persuade Coworkers to Join Your Cause
Motivate your Office to Go Green in Five Steps
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