An Overview: 7 Green Tips For A Sustainable Office
At FMYI, we are dedicated to a sustainable office and lifestyle. Last week we shared a daily #greentip with our Instagram followers to help improve sustainability in their workspace – providing easy ways a team can consume less, reduce waste, and help decrease their office’s carbon footprint.
Today, we recap our seven sustainability tips:
Green Tip #1: Compost
Do you know that over 60% of our landfills is organic waste? This includes food scraps, yard debris, and paper that decomposes into soil as plant nutrients. Having a compost bin at your office will reduce your team’s overall garbage output and slow down the filling of landfills.
Green Tip #2: Use Non-Toxic Cleaners
The average household contains about 62 toxic chemicals. Ingredients in common household products have been linked to asthma, cancer, reproductive disorders, hormone disruption and neurotoxicity. Try using baking soda and vinegar to clean your desk, doorknobs, floors, and walls, rather than using potentially, harmful toxic cleaners.
Green Tip #3: Bike, Bus, or Carpool
Start a rideshare program for employees that live in the same neighborhood. Having employees carpool, bike or bus to work reduces parking issues, road traffic, pollution, and may even help employees get to know each other better outside of the office.
Green Tip #4: Plants
Invest in easy-care, indoor plants that require little watering and sunlight. Some of our staff favorites include the spider plant, dragon plant, mother of tongue plant, peace lily, and fern. These plants are hardy and can withstand low-light, low-water environments. They are also specifically good at cleaning/purifying the air from formaldehyde, benzene and carbon monoxide. Additionally, having plants in a workspace has proven to help concentration, memory and productivity.
Green Tip #5: Buy in Bulk
Shopping for bulk items reduces wasteful packaging and saves time by making fewer trips to the store.
Green Tip #6: Invest in a Communal Garbage Bin
Office bins are often lined with plastic bags which are ultimately are thrown in the garbage themselves. Another way to reduce landfill waste is to invest in a single communal garbage bin to replace multiple individual bins. This also gives employees an excuse to stand up and get a little exercise.
Green Tip #7: Invest in Reusable Cutlery
Many offices purchase disposable cutlery and plates to avoid washing dishes and to speed up cleaning. However, investing in reusable cutlery and dishes means producing significantly less waste – consider an office of twenty people. If each person uses at least two utensils and a disposable container per meal or snack, consider how many items are thrown away each month! Reduce this waste completely by offering cutlery and dishes made of stainless steel, washable recycled materials, or ceramic.
Take part in a better world today. Get started and create a goal to follow one #greentip each week. If we all do a little, we can help reduce waste, reduce the filling of landfills, and make positive changes within our communities.
These seven #greentips are only a few of several ways an office can be more sustainable. Two other easy tips include: printing on both sides of paper; and turning off electronics, heat or AC overnight. And remember, each change in habit, no matter how small, makes a difference! One small act by one individual can motivate and encourage other employees to do the same, both at the office and at home.