3 New Year’s Resolutions That Will Improve Sustainability At The Office

With the new year approaching, many offices and companies are looking to establish new goals. Many look at financial goals, employee satisfaction, or better team building. Why not make sure one of those goals is to go greener? Here are 3 new year’s resolutions you can make (if you haven’t already) to improve sustainability at the office.

1. Address energy consumption and production

Energy consumption can make up a lot of waste and pollution in an office, but can in fact be one of the easiest challenges to address. From replacing lightbulbs to energy-efficient LEDs, to improving heating and cooling systems, to switching to laptops versus desktops, there are small steps your office can make to reduce consumption in a big way. Start with an energy audit, and resolute improve as many components of the audit as possible within the year.

Another program to look into is the energy consumed to get employees to and from work. Does everyone drive a car to work, or do most take public transportation? This year, find an opportunity that will encourage less parking spots to be filled at the workplace.

If you produce energy for your offices, also resolve to produce more than you need, and sell that energy back to the grid. This can be a great way to encourage carbon positive solutions to your office.

2. Go for sustainable, organic or local materials in your office and production

In your office cafeteria, you can resolve to only buy organic or local products. This will not only bring quality food and services to your workplace, but it will also help improve the local economy, build better relationships with local producers, and also save you money in the costs to ship non-local goods and services.

The same can be applied to your products: if you manufacture or sell products, looking at ways to adopt more sustainable (and local) materials, reducing the packaging waste, or improve transport efficiency, can be a great way to build a greener company.

3. Resolve to end one recycling or waste stream

Whether you go paper-less or plastic-free, you’re reducing waste, whether or not it is recyclable. By picking one stream and aiming for zero-waste in that department, you’ll be challenging your company and team to think about more sustainable options.

For example, going paper-free could mean looking for tech alternatives that allow documents to me shared on a secure network, versus every office individual printing out reports or forms just to show a co-employee, or get a signature that will just be scanned uploaded to an online file anyway. Your team can also think of ways to print greener, if printing must be done: from using 100% recycled paper, to using greener ink, this type of resolution can get everyone in a greener mindset.

Overall, making a new year’s resolution for a greener office can be a great way to jumpstart sustainable programs. For more green office tips, visit our blog.