How Green Is Your Workplace?

Stop Talking Start Doing – IBM’s ad shows the way

We’ve all seen the TV campaigns, news stories and general buzz about reducing your carbon footprint at home. An army of newly-enlisted eco-warriors are going about switching to energy saving bulbs, insulating their lofts and stopping putting their TVs on standby.It’s commendable stuff, but unfortunately CO2 emissions from individuals are only a minority of the problem.The truth is that the largest part of the global enviornmental burden comes from businesses and organisations.  And just like any economy of scale, in larger organisations even a small change can have a huge impact.

This may be all true, I hear you say. Not my job though. Reducing the company’s carbon footprint is my boss’s job, not mine. Hell no. If you have a workplace, you can make big changes to your employer’s carbon footprint.Plus it can be a lot more effective than the actions you take at home.

Here are some pointers, small and large, on achieving a greener workplace:

1. Recycle office waste. The amount of paper, cans and plastic used at work is many times more than what you throw away at home. Why not try bringing in recycle containers in accessible locations. Its simpler than you think, as there are countless government and charity programs to do this for you for free.
2. Drive less to work. Emissions from car exhausts are so harmful, and they can be cut by starting a fairly simple car pooling system. Or better still, think about cycling or walking to work.
3. Switch to energy saving lightbulbs. Switching a few bulbs in the house conserves only a small amount of energy. But think of how much more energy is used in lighting up your office and you begin to see how powerful a simple thing like switching to energy saving bulbs could be.
4. Green Information Technology. The energy usage of IT systems is huge for the majority of companies and organisations. You can make a big difference simply by making sure your monitor isn’t left on standby when you finish work. Or better still, get on to your IT department to review their “green baseline”. Get them to perform some proper asset tracking on all office IT equipment, using professional asset management software, a business can dramatically reduce its carbon footprint and help meet increasingly stringent government environmental requirements.
5. Campaigning. Go to the next level. Get like-minded colleagues together to run green campaigns and the real revolution begins.By putting pressure on our bosses to take seriously their green duties we little guys can make a real difference. Very often going green also saves a lot of money, as the TV ad above shows.  For example, companies involved in transporting goods and supplies often generate millions of tons of CO2. Pushing them to properly review their transport and logistics management and make the smallest of improvements can save them big money and dramatically reduce their carbon footprint in the process.

This is just a starting point on the subject. This article was primarly aimed at getting your juices flowing about this issue. Agree? Disagree? Feel free to air your thoughts!

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