Going green in the workplace is a great way to protect our earth and increase awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability. Implementing sustainable practices in your business can drive profitability, attract new customers, motivate employees, increase efficiency, and help to protect the environment. Here are some easy ways to encourage sustainability in your business and do your part to protect our planet.

Many organizations tend to hesitate when establishing a “Going Green” commitment because they have not seen notable improvements, or they have not reached their sustainability goals. In order to see results, it is important for business leaders to formalize their commitment and share it with their employees and customers. Establishing specific practices that you want your business to follow such as reducing or eliminating paper use, recycling, reducing electricity, etc., will allow your business to be held to a certain standard and it will motivate employees to live up to that standard. Remember: sustainability is not something that can be achieved overnight, but instead it is a process that takes responsibility and mindfulness to be successful at. As long as you communicate openly with your employees and customers about the company sustainability goals, you are more likely to see improvements throughout the company.

Create a Green Team

In order to be committed to sustainability initiatives, it is a great idea to elect a few employees to form a “green team!” These individuals can ask for thoughts and ideas from the rest of the company to ensure that all employees have a voice about going green, and they can monitor the progress of the company’s sustainable practices. The green team can also research new “green” trends and initiatives that can help the company achieve its goals. Fully committing to sustainable practices does require help from everyone, so it’s a great idea to have a green team that can motivate everyone to do their part!

Conserve Electricity

Although it may seem obvious, turning off the lights and electronics at the end of the day or when they are not in use is one of the most effective ways to reduce your business’s environmental impact. To solidify this initiative, tell all of your employees about it and appoint one employee to make sure all of the lights are shut off at the end of the day. In addition, especially in an office space, there are likely lots of electronics such as phones, televisions, computers, printers, etc., that need to be turned off when they are not in use. An easy way to remember to turn all of these electronics off is to hook them all up to a power cord, so they are all close together using the same electricity source. Finally, turning down heating or cooling systems when no one is using them will help conserve power greatly. Talking to your provider about timing systems or environmental suggestions can be a great place to start!

Reduce Business Travel

Although traveling for business is essential to many companies, it can greatly increase your company’s carbon footprint. Luckily thanks to modern technology, we can now use video conferencing for meetings instead of traveling by car, train or plane. This will greatly reduce your impact on the environment and save money on traveling as well!

Invest in a Digital Filing System

Larger corporations should consider investing in a digital filing system as an alternative to using an unreasonable amount of paper. Not only will this reduce your company’s paper use and help the environment, but it also has many other benefits too! Using a digital filing system will keep documents safe and easy to access from multiple devices everywhere you go.

In conclusion, going green in your business means reducing your overall environmental impact. You will begin to save energy which will lead to more efficiency and reduced costs. Not only will you be helping your local environment, but your efforts towards sustainability may drive your business and increase profits. As always, feel free to comment down below or contact me directly with any questions!