Why Making your Workplace Greener will Lead to a Better Workplace Environment
The world is always changing, the growing issues in today's society will inevitably change how our lives. A Reducing the ecological footprint on the planet is becoming increasingly necessary to ensure the survival of both the planet and life as we know it.
Tackling global warming and climate change will require all of us to make lifestyle changes. Not all of them need to be drastic, there are small things we can all do to help. Starting from your workplace.
A greener office space does not need to have huge costs associated with it. In fact many green initiatives can be cost saving. The initiatives can also help to increase your company's employees well being, productivity, and increase shareholder value. A green workplace is an environmentally sensitive, resource efficient, and socially responsible workplace.
LIGHTING
The benefits of going green are deeper than you'd think. Converting to LED lights is a great example, they make it so that when the lights are on they cost less than the traditional fluorescent lighting. LED lights are 30% more energy efficient by wattage, and contain no poisonous mercury.They even reduce air conditioning costs because LED does not use heat to produce light like fluorescent. LED does not give off UV light, which is a common cause of eye strain and eye fatigue. This strain on the eyes makes it harder for employees to concentrate on their work and can cause them headaches. Along with switching the lights you can implement a policy that when a room is not in use, to turn off the lights. Reducing the time that lights are on when they don’t need to be saved not only energy but also operation costs. You could also put in motion sensor lights.
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
Installing recycling bins and encouraging their use is a great way to get employees to do a green initiative. This is a simple task that helps your employees feel that they are able to help the company become more green. Another way is if you have a community lounge with a kitchen, get a community set of mugs, glasses, utensils and dishes. This way you are encouraging employees to reuse dishes instead of bringing in plastic versions that go right into the trash. This also would help to show your employees that you care, that you are trying to make the work kitchen nicer. Adding the community set of kitchen essentials builds a sense of being a team, and brings your employees together.
ADDING A LITTLE GREENERY
The next tip involves literally making your office green. Add some live plants to the office space, they filter air and you can pour your used coffee grinds in their soil to nurture the plant, In return the plant reduces employees stress by 37%, and reduces sickness or absence by 25%, meanwhile increasing productivity by 15%. Another benefit is that having plants makes your workspace look more attractive to job applicants.
(Check out our article about “The Importance of Mental Health in the Workplace” to see how much mental health impacts employees.)
REDUCE PAPER USE
Set up ways to share files without having to physically spend time and paper to print out files and manually give them to others. You can set up a bin to put lightly used paper that can be used as scrap paper. Then you can reduce the paper towel use by putting in hand dryers in the bathrooms.
Beyond the benefits we just discussed, creating a greener office can also help organizations become eligible for government incentives to go green, like tax credits. Stockholders and consumers also like green companies. Sustainable, responsible and impact investing (SRI) grew to $8.72 trillion in assets (a 33% increase) from 2014 to 2016. Consumers seek more responsible products 84% of the time and 90% would boycott an irresponsible or deceptive business. So even the stakeholders like going green.
To Summarize:
Here’s a quick list of things you can implement to make your workplace greener:
Switch lights to LEDs
Have your employees turn off lights when not in use
Install recycling bins and encourage them to be used
Add a compost bin to the kitchen
In the kitchen have a community set of mugs, glasses, utensils and dishes
Bring in real office plants
Try to reduce paper usage
Install hand dryers instead of paper towels in the restroom
And as a result, your greener office will help you reap the rewards of:
Lower Operational Costs
Employee Retention
Employee well-being
Stockholders and consumers like Green
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