Green Office Week has now come to an end but the idea is that we all continue to make eco-friendly choices throughout the year.
Spread the word among your colleagues and do the math as they say. If, for example, simply by re-using your paper cup you have saved 25 cups from the bin this week, calculate how many cups collectively would not be sent to the rubbish dump each year. That gives people a more graphic picture about waste – you could even work out how much money it would save the office.
When it comes to hot drinks, you might think of switching to Fairtrade products. Fairtrade safeguards environmental standards and helps more ethical production through ensuring that the farmers and producers get a fair deal for their product, so you're supporting a more sustainable product. And don't fill up the kettle to make a single cup of coffee!
There are another couple of useful ideas. If you're in the process of writing a report, print out early versions in draft – they're just as readable and save on
toner cartridges. You could even set your printer default to draft, and change it when you need a sharper print.
Use Print Preview, so you can check for typos before you print. You can make better use of paper with efficient paragraphing (deleting those line returns that often add blank pages at the end), and choosing the correct font size. And though I've not tried it, the 'shrink to fit' function can also help you to reduce paper wastage.
These are just a handful of ideas – drop us a line with any others you have so we can continue to think green in the office.
