8 Tips for Making Your Office Space More Eco-Friendly
by Krista Kaput
Growing up, the three R’s were drilled into my head: reduce, reuse, recycle. I always thought that by recycling plastics, glass, paper, and other recyclables that I was doing my part to help keep our earth clean and healthy. However, in recent years, I learned that only about 9% of all plastics are actually recycled, which has resulted in billions of metric tons of plastics becoming either waste in landfills or waste in the natural environment.
However, it’s not just reducing plastic usage that’s important to leading a more sustainable lifestyle. Working to reduce waste and extraneous energy usage are also important steps to make your office space more eco-friendly.
Over the past three years, I have worked to lead a plastic-free and more sustainable lifestyle to reduce my carbon footprint. From my own personal learnings and experiences, I have crafted 8 tips for how you can make your office space more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Most of these tips can be implemented in a formal office space, or if your office space is in your home (like me!).
1. Go Digital
Given the digital age we live in, this tip should be straight forward. There are a number of digital storage options from paperless billing, digital filing systems, and collaboration tools that nonprofits should adopt to reduce their paper usage.
Sometimes, printing is still necessary; however, we should still be diligent about it. The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper annually, and 45% of it ends up in the trash.
To reduce paper usage, workplaces should implement guidelines around printer usage. Some examples include:
Print pages double-sided or duplexed
Reuse or share printed documents
Email nonprofit-wide information whenever possible instead of printing it
Make nonprofit meetings paperless
Nonprofits should also look into recycling their ink cartridges, upgrade to a more energy efficient printer, and use recycled paper instead of conventional paper.
2. Unplug your devices or invest in smart power strips
Did you know that even when you power down your devices that energy is still being consumed? This is called a “Phantom Load” and refers to standby power consumed by appliances and devices when they are not in active use. Before you leave your workplace, unplug your devices!!
Another route would be for your nonprofit to invest in smart power strips, which are specifically designed to help reduce power usage. Rather than relying on yourself or your coworkers to unplug devices, a smart power strip shuts off the power to products that are in standby mode. I have these not only in my office, but throughout my apartment and they are super easy to use!
3. Invest in a bottleless water cooler and Institute a BYORB policy (Bring Your Own Reusable Bottle)
One low hanging fruit policy that can make your office eco-friendly is to get rid of single-use plastic bottle usage. Nonprofits should invest in bottleless water coolers, which provide on-demand cold or hot drinking water. Before I started working from home, my Minnesota-based nonprofit had invested in a SodaStream, which is a sparkling water maker. I loved it so much that I bought one for myself and I use it multiple times a day!
Related, nonprofits should implement a Bring Your Own Reusable Bottle (BYORB) policy, which would not only reduce single-use plastic usage but also allow nonprofit employees to express themselves through their favorite mug, cup or glass. A nonprofit could also choose to invest in personalized coffee mugs and glasses that nonprofit employees could use in lieu of single-use plastic cups or paper coffee cups.
4. Ditch the paper towels
In many offices, paper towels are the main go-to method for cleaning up spills. However, their usage negatively impacts the environment. Not only does their production contribute to deforestation, and therefore global warming, but they also create large amounts of waste. There a number of eco-friendly alternatives to paper towels that your office should consider investing in or asking workers to donate if they have extras:
Washcloths
Reusable cleaning micro-cloths
Swedish dishcloths
5. Invest in reusable silverware and serving utensils
Have you ever had a work celebration (like a birthday) and your office used single-use silverware and plates? There’s an easy, eco-friendly alternative - reusable silverware! It’s a relatively inexpensive and easy way to cut down on plastic and paper waste.
In addition to the usual forks, knives, and spoons, it’s also helpful to have a set of reusable serving utensils on hand, rather than relying on the disposable utensils.
6. Keep the shades open during daylight hours
If your office space is equipped with windows, this is really a no-brainer. By opening the blinds and enjoying the natural light, your office space will not only save money but will also lessen their carbon footprint.
At the same time, daylight has been shown to have a positive impact on well-being. By lighting your office space with natural light, it could lead to greater work productivity and workplace satisfaction, as well as less stress.
7. Keep an eye on the thermostat - particularly in the winter and summer
This tip is really important, particularly since we live in Minnesota and have extreme temperatures. If people in your office are wearing sweaters in the summer months, then your office is too cold! Try setting your nonprofit’s air conditioning to 72 degrees. If your office space is still comfortable, then try to go up another degree or two. At the end of the work day, increase the thermostat to 78 degrees or higher, or turn it off altogether! The higher your thermostat reads in the summer months, the more energy — and money — your nonprofit will save in the long run.
In the winter months, try setting your thermostat to 68 degrees when people are in the office and then lower it to 58 degrees at the end of the work day. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, turning your thermostat back 10–15 degrees for at least eight hours a day could save your nonprofit 10-15% off your heating bill.
If you work in a space where your nonprofit doesn’t have direct control over the thermostat, consider reaching out to the landlord or building management to see if they can make adjustments to the temperature.
8. Decorate the office with plants
There are so many benefits to having indoor office plants, from boosting productivity to reducing stress levels to just being aesthetically pleasing. When I worked at my Minnesota-based nonprofit, our office manager decorated our office with a lot of plants, and it made our office space a lot more calming and welcoming. I loved them so much that when we had to shift to working from home during the pandemic, I took a lot of the plants home. Now, my home office has 16 plants (and counting).
In conclusion, while some of these tips may be more difficult to implement than others, every small step counts and leads us to building a more eco-friendly workspace. Your workplace could start slow by adopting the lower lift steps like #3 or #6, and I also recommend you invite your colleagues to share their ideas on how your nonprofit can be more sustainable.
- Krista Kaput -
