Health

8 Steps toward a Greener Office Environment

Written by Emily Ferreira on May 16, 2008 3:38 pm EST

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The Go Green movement is in full force and marketing efforts clearly expose this push towards creating a Green Environment. Food products, household appliances, and even kitchen cleaners are now available in green. But, what can we do to create a greener workplace (without having to sacrifice toilet paper usage!) in order to produce a healthier and safer environment for us all?

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Here are 8 steps that companies can take to create a Green Work Environment:

1. Save Paper. Avoid printing large documents and attempt to go completely paperless if possible. Many of us now have access to paperless faxing, banking, invoicing, and the list goes on. Take advantage of it!

2. Offer Healthy Snack Options. Swap cookies and candy with nuts, fresh fruit and vegetables. There are also various blends of dried fruit-and-nut mixes that are quite tasty and hearty at the same time.

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3. Don’t be a Sucker for Soda. Remove the soda vending machines. Offer purified water (bottled or cooler water), 100% fruit juices, and various herbal tea options.

4. Save Electricity. Office buildings use a ton of electricity between the lighting, air conditioning, heating and powering the computers and machines used to facilitate the work process. There are several ways that we can minimize the power usage in our workplace such as cleaning out the coils in the AC units, turning off lights when you leave your office, utilizing natural light when possible, replacing old or outdated appliances and machines.

I ran across this nifty device called the SMJ Plug-In Energy Saving Monitor that measures that amount of power used in appliances and is a great tool to help monitor and control your power usage.

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5. Provide Recycling Bins. Place recycling bins in convenient locations around the office and clearly label each bin with the particular type of recycling material to be placed in the bin such as “paper”, “plastic”, “aluminum” etc.

6. Rethink Catering Options. When hosting formal events, you should consider offering healthy dessert options such as fruit salads, yogurts and low fat sorbets instead of decadent cakes and desserts. Or, if you’re simply trying to get your team to endure through a long seminar, consider finding a local deli or health food caterer that provides fresh salads, wraps and deli sandwiches instead of settling for local pizza delivery.

7. Maintaining a Proactive Attitude. Keeping a positive attitude and indulging in proactive actions in and around the office, whether it may be voting for change and actively helping keep the office clean and green can facilitate the process of maintaining a green environment.

8. Reconsider your commute. If you live within close proximity to work why not ride a bicycle to work instead of driving. Or, if you live really far then you can always buy one of these Green Mobile thingies… LOL