These days, people understand the importance of going green. Being environmentally conscious has become a part of our culture. Many people are making big efforts towards making their home more energy efficient, and are reaping many benefits because of it. However, not nearly as many people are putting their efforts towards making their workplace a greener environment. After your home, you spend the most amount of time at work, so it makes perfect sense to become a little more energy efficient at the office as well. The following article has some great ways to help you go green at work. Read on and learn.
If you work in an office building, you probably have lots of office appliances and electronics. Chances are, some of this equipment has been in the office for as long as you remember. Ask your employer to swap out old appliances for newer, more energy efficient ones. Make an effort to replace them with equipment that contains the blue ENERGY STAR label as this a great way to help conserve energy.
Most places of work use obscene amounts of paper. Now, there is no way to totally eliminate the use of paper, that would be unrealistic. However, with a little effort you can greatly reduce the amount of paper your office consumes. Instead of printing out the document you want to share with a coworker, simply email it to him. Rather than making copies of important files, try scanning them and starting up an electronic filing system. Not only will this save paper, but it will save space and keep you more organized as well.
Most business or places of work have a lunch room with a refrigerator. It is common knowledge that refrigerators consume energy the more they are opened and closed. Think of how often your office fridge gets opened each day. It probably gets more use in a single day, than your home refrigerator gets in a month. You can help fight this by bringing in a lunch that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Try and get your coworkers to do the same, and you are sure to save a great deal of energy in the long term.
These days, recycling has become pretty popular. However, in offices, the only thing that seems to get recycled is paper. While this is well and good, you can take things a step further by setting up separate recycling bins for paper, cans, bottles, and glass. This takes almost no effort, and you will be shocked to see how much more the entire office recycles if they just have this option available to them. Sometimes a lack of proper disposal containers is the main reason people tend to not recycle.
Having an energy efficient home is great, but your efforts shouldn’t stop there. Implement the tips and advice mentioned in the article above and turn your workplace into a environmentally conscious haven. Not only will you help our mother earth, but your efforts are sure to rub off on your coworkers as well.