Sustainable workplace practices help address environmental and health issues. While many people already practice a sustainable lifestyle at home, it’s essential to also adopt good habits at work. After all, we invest a significant portion of our day in the office and consequently create a significant amount of our waste there. Start by incorporating simple habits into your daily office routine, like recyclig and segregating garbage properly. To learn more simple tips on achieving a sustainable work environment, read on.
In this article:
Sustainable Workplace Habits Everyone Should Know
1. Separate Trash and Recycling
A sustainable workplace habit as simple as recycling and segregating trash can go a long way in reducing your company’s use of natural resources. Place recycling bins around the office space and encourage employees to utilize these bins and segregate their trash correctly.
2. No Plastic or No Styrofoam Policy
Another sustainable workplace practice that is getting more popular these days is the no plastic and no styrofoam policy. Some companies don’t even let employees enter the premises if they have plasticware with them!
Made with non-sustainable materials, styrofoam and plastic heavily damage the environment. Enforcing a strict policy against them in the workplace can curb the use of these products and ideally slow their production.
3. Create a Designated Smoking Area
Having a designated smoking area is another sustainable workplace practice. Cigarette smoking has been shown to be harmful to both the smoker and those around them. However, a company cannot mandate that its workers quit smoking, even when it provides resources to help them stop. Still, by designating a smoking area away from entrances or areas where people frequently pass, you can protect the well-being of the other employees and hopefully discourage the practice.
4. Have Healthier Meals on Your Menu
Healthy meals lead to a healthier body, and a healthier body means better days at work. This is why employers should consider providing their employees access to sustainable and nutritious food. There are plenty of affordable and healthy recipes that can be incorporated into a company’s cafeteria menu.
5. Fix All Broken Appliances and Faucets
Fixing leaking faucets and broken appliances is a sustainable workplace practice no employer can afford to skip out on. Malfunctioning pieces of equipment create both increased costs for a company and a heavy impact on the earth’s resources. To aid in appliances’ upkeep, remind employees to report any malfunctioning utilities immediately.
6. Make Double-Sided Copies
How many pages do we print in a day? Are these pages used? How many of these sheets do you throw away for technical and printing errors? Add to this the fact that most offices use printers on a daily basis, and you suddenly see a lot of paper waste. One way to conserve paper resources is to use both sides when printing.
7. Go Green Online
The internet can serve as an alternative to many non-sustainable workplace practices. For example, instead of sending faxes, snail mail, or memos, we can simply send an email and share a file. Additionally, conferences may be done via video call, so we can save up on transportation fees and gas.
Watch this video by LACOE/ETN to learn more responsible sustainable workplace practices we can apply:
These are just some of the sustainable workplace practices we can incorporate into our daily lives. Sustainability efforts in the workplace don’t have to be complicated. Every sheet of paper spared, every plate reused, and every product we use less contributes to extending our own lifespan, as well as the lifespan of natural resources.
What sustainable workplace habits do you practice? Share them with us in the comments below!