Green Office
Green Office Are The Trend
Many companies are making the effort to be more planet friendly. They find that not only does it often save them money in supplies like ink and paper but also that statistically, employees miss fewer days at work and are generally more healthy and productive. This is where an innovative new business could really help them out. You will start a service that reviews a company’s current work environment and helps them to institute simple solutions that will help them to generate less waste and to make their everyday surroundings more pleasant and less sterile.
An interesting fact; the average American worker throws away an average of 150 pounds of paper per year. Therefore, by examining their style of producing memos and paper backup copies of documents, you can help them save money and generate less paper waste. Recycling paper products would also go a long way toward helping lessen the size of their carbon footprint. Instituting these kinds of ‘green policies’ can help a company not only save on expenditures, but also affect the attitudes and behaviors of their employee base when they believe they work in a Green Office environment.
Many corporations are commissioning the building of office sites that are either more ‘green office‘ or are ‘carbon neutral’, many using solar or geothermal technologies. However, what about the many companies that do not have the resources to start from scratch and construct new buildings and completely overhauled environments for their employees to make green offices for them? These companies like the idea of the cost savings associated with a more environmentally friendly work site. They also like the good publicity that their efforts often generate. When competing to hire new, highly qualified employees, a green offices work environment is one more incentive that a company can offer, over and above the common benefits like health insurance and paid vacations.
So the question is, how can these businesses achieve a more green office work environment without generating excessive costs and suffering from a loss off productive hours while these green changes are put in place?
More simple changes could include installing automatic shut-offs for lighting which could cut back on approximately 44% of the electricity used in the average office building. Changing the settings on their computers so that they automatically power down after 15 minutes of idle time can cut the energy used by the machine by 70%. Lighting is another simple and cost-effective way for companies to go green. Using Energy Star certified compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s) would help them to use 75% less energy to produce the same amount of light. These bulbs last 10 times longer and produce less heat to boot in a Green Office Environment.
If the company is large enough, they may be able to provide busing from one facility location to another for times when different sites are required to meet together for conferences or meetings that incorporate several different departments within the organization. They can also encourage their employees to forgo driving all together on certain days of the week by working from home or using bicycles to commute to work in a Green Office Environment. There are other things that are often overlooked that can easily hurt the environment such as the replacement of office tables and chairs when they become scruffy looking. There are companies that will fix, refinish, and reupholster their furniture for a fraction of the cost and without adding to the landfill.
Another way to make the green office greener and to provide the employees with an obvious reminder to be more proactive when it comes to conserving resources is to arrange for the office to be filled with living, green things. Living plants in the office clean and recycle the air naturally. The latest NASA research recommends that, for plants to be effective “air cleaners” it is necessary to use one potted plant per 100 square feet of office space. Encourage employees to add small potted plants to their desks and cubicles. You could also arrange for a company to come in on a weekly basis and care for all the plants in the office. For a small fee, these plant companies can water, fertilize, and prune all office plants and small trees, as needed. Some of these companies even offer to provide you with the plants!
Remind employees that, when the time comes to purchase new equipment, that they should look for Energy Star certified machines since an Energy Star certified computer will be 52% more efficient than a standard one. Moreover, it goes without saying that laptops may use less electricity than desktops and providing them with laptops will also add to the number of employees who are able to work from their Green Office home.
For companies whose workspace is leased, you will have to make sure that they first get permission from the building owner to make any changes that might affect their leasing contract. There are some changes, like replacing the current toilets that generally use up to 8 gallons of water per flush, with toilets that only use a maximum of 1.6 gallons per flush, this change may, or may not, be okay with the building’s owners. Although, if the company takes on the expense of these changes themselves, it would make sense that most building owners would have no objections, since they would be adding value to the structure, at no cost to them. The savings in water use by the company should be significant eventually paying for the cost of installing new low-flow toilets thus making their work area a Green Office.
Green Office Advertising
Next, you will need to help these companies to find you! Advertising in a local phone book is helpful but offering a website with photos and extensive descriptions of the services you are making available is even better. People are more likely to turn to a business with a friendly face than just an impersonal phone number. You should be sure to list your website with local business directories as well as popular search engines. To get your business off the ground, you would benefit also by printing up a brochure of the services you offer and visiting office buildings in the area as well as building management companies.