Going Green at Work is Where You Can Really Make a Difference
The 'Go Green' Campaign by IBM
2008 was undoubtedly the year of cutting your carbon footprint at home, with a flood of press coverage and ad campaigns about going green. An army of newly-enlisted eco-warriors are going about switching to energy saving bulbs, insulating their lofts and stopping putting their TVs on standby.The thing is, the damage we cause to the environment individually is only a small piece of a much bigger pie.The truth is that the largest part of the global enviornmental burden comes from businesses and organisations.It’s like an economy of scale – if you change a small thing within a big company you can see tremendous results.
Yes, I hear you say. I don’t have any control over that. That’s the job of my boss, and my boss’s boss – nothing to do with me. But that’s just not the case. If you have a job, you can affect your company’s carbon emissions.Plus it can be a lot more effective than the actions you take at home.
Here are some pointers, small and large, on achieving a greener workplace:
- Recycle office waste. There’s a huge amount of potentially recyclable material that businesses dispose of every day – far more than your home output could ever be. Try and get recycling collection bins on every floor of your workplace. Speak to your local council about this as there are often free schemes to do this for you.
- Cut down on driving. Carpools take very little organisation and have a big impact on reducing carbon emissions. Or just cut out the car altogether – consider cycling or walking to work.
- Change to energy saving bulbs. Changing a couple of bulbs at home saves only a tiny bit of energy. But think about how many lightbulbs there are in your workplace and you’ll begin to see how effective it could be to get them switched.
- Green Machines. Computers are ubiquitous in the office and they use up a huge amount of energy. Simply hitting the power button on your computer screen is a great start. But don’t just stop there – by getting your IT department to review the company’s “green baseline” you can multiply the impact. Get them to perform some proper asset tracking on all office IT equipment, using professional asset management software, a business can dramatically reduce its carbon footprint and help meet increasingly stringent government environmental requirements.
- Campaigning. Go a step beyond the little things. Gather yourself a like-minded platoon at work and start campaigning change and you’ll see big things happen.By putting pressure on our bosses to take seriously their green duties we little guys can make a real difference. Frequently going green also saves you money, as the IBM advertisement above shows.Many companies are involved in using corporate vehicles in some way, from company cars to global freighting of goods, and this is a huge source of carbon emissions. Pushing them to properly review their transport and logistics management and make the smallest of improvements can save them big money and dramatically reduce their carbon footprint in the process.
These are just some ideas. My main aim with this article was to get people thinking about how powerful being green at work can be. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
