Greening Your Work Style

How would you rate your carbon footprint at work?

You recycle, you commute by public transit and you turn off lights when you leave the room. Before resting on your green laurels, take stock of what happens when you get to work. Is your work style planet friendly?

Reduce the trail of waste

From that first cup of coffee to the afternoon cinnamon bun, food habits at work can produce a noticeable amount of environmental baggage. Add up the typical output of a take-out lifestyle:

• Twenty coffee cups (double for the additional afternoon fix)
• Twenty polystyrene take-out containers
• Twenty sets of polystyrene forks and knives
• Forty+ napkins made from non-recycled content
• Ten polystyrene yogurt or soup containers
• Twenty PET soda or water bottles

That’s easily a full garbage bag of waste every month. Twelve bags of waste a year, just from work, and by one individual.

And even if the office recycles, not all food containers qualify for the green and blue bins. The waste could very well end up in a landfill. If the garbage is recyclable, you still added waste that takes more energy to convert the used container into something useful.

By bringing your lunch once or twice a week, you’ll significantly cut down on the amount of work-related waste. For the other days that you buy lunch, have your own cutlery in your desk. Fill up a reusable water bottle or coffee mug. Throw a cloth napkin in your briefcase or knapsack in the morning.

Use less paper

Computers were supposed to cut down on paper, but everyone knows the opposite is true. We can print anything, so we do. It’s a habit that has a simple solution: double-side printing. Make this the default setting on all your office printers. Use paper that has high-recycled content.

If you do end up with single-sided drafts that you would otherwise discard, put them in a special bin by the printer. These can be used again for more drafts.

Consider if you really need to print at all. In some cases, records management policies ask that you keep printed records. If you’re not bound by those rules, keep digital records that are backed up regularly.

Turn it off

The easiest way to save energy is to turn electronic devices off when they’re not in use. This includes monitors, CPUs, fax machines and printers.

Most office equipment sold today has the ability to switch into "sleep" or low-power mode if it is not being used. The energy savings can be significant, especially for large organizations. But letting your machine sleep is not the same as turning it off.

Make it a habit to shut down everything at the end of the workday. Encourage your office management to develop a policy on shutting off equipment in the evenings and on weekends.

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