Source: Frontier Energy
Making your office eco-friendly is not as difficult as you may think. The RocketSpace team has put together a list of product swaps and some green habits which will help your office earn some serious eco-friendly bragging rights.
How To Make Your Office More Green
1. Swap out your plastic
In 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic, and, in 2016, a global population of more than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tons of plastic. This is set to double by 2034. Plastic is used in our everyday lives with shopping bags, cutlery, cups, water bottles —the list is endless.
Anywhere from 22% to 43% of that plastic ends up in landfills where it won’t biodegrade. Plastic also finds its way into our oceans; there is now an estimated 5.25 trillion macro and microplastic pieces floating in the open ocean weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.
Plastic containers also have chemicals like bisphenol A and phthalates that leak into food and can lead to serious health issues including cancer.
Instead of plastic, use glass or steel containers to store your food. Opt for reusable shopping bags as well as produce bags. And, for an easy win, purchase a reusable water bottle!
2. Get a green thumb
Plants are a great way to bring eco-friendly character into your space. They help purify the air by reducing pollutants, and, in the case of certain plants like orchids and succulents, take in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that plants can increase employee productivity and satisfaction by 15%.
Create an urban jungle with plants from Patch, a plant delivery service committed to making your space a plant oasis.
3. Think before you print
Deforestation causes environmental destruction. 14% of all global wood harvest is used to make paper. And, the majority of that paper ends up as waste accounting for 25% of landfill waste.
With hundreds on online collaboration tools, why not maintain a virtual bulletin board for announcements, send memos by email and Slack, and head to the cloud for document sharing. In the digital office environment, printing is so 1997.
4. Power down
It is easy to go green when you incorporate the idea into your office-life and commit to it. Encourage walking or cycling to work at least once a week. Use power-management options in the operating system of your computer, and only charge your laptop when it actually needs it. Set the monitor to turn off in cases of inactivity, and set the desktop systems to hibernate, or shutdown at the end of the day when you have left the office.
Also, think about lighting. It is a habit when you enter a room to turn on the light, but do you really need it? A majority of office spaces receive natural light, so let’s use it!
Go Green
Are you looking for a sustainably minded office space?
RocketSpace is a network of high-performance workspaces exclusively for tech startups. With locations in both San Francisco and London, we’re on a mission to build a global community of high growth startups and connect them to the network, resources, and community they need to scale. RocketSpace is also striving to make eco-friendly choices. Members often host Green Committee meetings where we discuss ideas on how we can make our campus more environmentally friendly. Wish to join? Schedule a tour today.
