There are many ways in which we can all do our bit for the environment. Some of them take almost no effort and seem to make a huge impact. Others require a bit more effort than most people are willing to put in.
So if you’re not too keen on cycling the thirty-mile round trip to the office every day, here are some quick and relatively easy ways you and your office can help to reduce your carbon emission.
Turn Computers Off Overnight
Whilst we all appreciate the ease and speed of walking into our office in the morning wiggling the mouse and seeing the deluge of emails which have miraculously appeared overnight. Could we just wait a minute? Leaving computers and monitors on overnight is a really easy way to use unnecessary energy.
If no-one is using it, why would we pay to keep it on. Not only will this tip save the company on those electricity bills, but it will help to reduce the carbon emission in one really easy step.
Print Double Sided
You’re simply not going to believe how much of a difference this makes to the world. If you look at just printing out ten pages a day, the impact is huge. Those ten pages trim down to five. That’s the easy bit, but then those five pages have not had to be made from trees which have been felled in the Amazon Rainforest. The pages have not been shipped half the way around the world, to be driven to the storage depot for the company which sells them. Then those five pages have not been delivered into your office, which has then not put them into the printer.
Switch Onto An Eco-Tariff
Every major electricity provider has an eco-tariff. It is a tariff, which will either put back into the earth for every unit used, or they only supply electricity from renewable sources.
Now we know this one is harder for the average worker to have an impact on, but if anyone could, this would have a huge effect on the company’s carbon emissions.
Choosing an electricity provider who has an infrastructure in place to supply your office with electricity coursed purely from solar, wind or wave power brings the carbon footprint right down. It removes the huge impact that fossil and nuclear fuels have on our planet. Shopping around for electricity providers will not only save the company money, but also reduce the carbon emissions.
The one big take away from all of this is that you do not need to change the car park to a cycle rack, you don’t need to convince everyone at the office to give up their car. You don’t even need to change the staff canteen to serve only vegan options. A couple of very small steps will have a huge impact on the way the office runs.
Afterall, it is all about taking small steps to make a major change.