Sustainability has transcended the status of a trend. Since climate change is in full swing now, we need to establish an eco-friendly framework of living and apply it to every aspect of our lives – from private activities to work-related obligations. This means that green practices are changing homes and workplaces alike. If you are an entrepreneur or a senior manager of a company yourself, here are tips on establishing a sustainable workplace you can suggest to your peers.
Of course, recycle like crazy
At least 90% of office waste can be recycled. Whether it’s crumpled paper, plastic bottles, or tin cans, each of the materials can be recycled and reused, so implementing a system of specialized trash cans for this purpose should not be a particularly hard thing to do. Recycling stations should be marked in a distinct and clear manner and placed in proximity to places where a certain type of material is mostly discarded: for example, near the kitchen or beside the photocopier and printers. Since we have mentioned them, bear in mind that you can also recycle printer cartridges. You can hire Skip Bins Adelaide services are extremely helpful for the fast removal of waste from your home and office.
Introduce plants to the proceedings
Green is good. Eco-friendly workplaces follow this philosophy to a T by incorporating plant life into their sleek environments. Plants are not only wonderfully lively decorative elements but they are also essentially free air purifiers. They have been part of corporate interior design for a long time, but now they are not an afterthought.
It has become a common practice among the best-shared office space establishments to implement greenery into their environments in order to spread the idea of green thinking among freelancers. And make no mistake, plants are also reminders that we need to correct our habits, be more stingy with the usage of paper, and be careful about which recycling bin is for what sort of material.
Practice waste reduction
Certainly, the best way to create a sustainable workplace is to simply reduce wasting any and all resources. For example, the fact that sharing and reading electronic material has become a common practice, especially since the introduction of tablets, is a good example of implementing a waste-reducing green strategy.
LED lights will use a lot less energy than incandescent bulbs and you can install sensor-triggered faucets in the bathroom. As a matter of fact, you can also install sensor lights in certain hotspots around the workplace in order to reduce your overall electricity expenditure. Each of these added elements will make a small contribution, but together they make for a sustainable workplace.
Instill good habits and traditions
Nothing instills good group habits like regular activities. For example, you can organize a ‘Green Earth’ day at the office and encourage employees to participate in it. These activities can range from spare clothes donations to participation in green surface cleanups around the city. Planting trees and organizing’ vegan days’ in order to raise awareness about the pollution that is residual to meat production (especially cattle cultivation) are also good ideas. You can also create a system of rewards for the employees who are the most eco-conscious.
Say goodbye to chemical cleaners
One of the easiest ways to prevent pollution is to stop purchasing aggressively toxic chemical cleaners that do unimaginable damage to the environment once they are flushed down the toilet. Let’s be honest: rarely does anyone think about those volatile compounds after they disappear into the pipes, and as soon as you start purchasing green counterparts, you’ll never even have to consider thinking about them. Mild cleaners based on baking soda are just as effective and they do not pose any type of threat to the immediate ecosystem.
Green thinking has become an integral part of business strategies, especially prominent in the logistics of running the HQ of a company. These strategies have a double benefit for each company that makes an effort to implement them – many of them will bring the bills down and thus keep the business afloat. In addition, most of these sustainable factors are not that expensive to implement in the first place.
