Green Habits at Workplace
"If there is to be an ecologically sound society, it will have to come the grass roots up, not from the top down."- Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce
I feel being "green" can be a part of your present job, how you react to the various practices and procedures of the company and take on the initiative towards actions supporting the green practices - such as turning off lights and computers as employees leave for home. Request the building management to lower the AC to bare comfortable levels. Employees must initiate a healthy green workplace that supports environment friendly habits and not wait for a higher management initiative or enforcement of such habits at the workplace. However, it would only improve the chances of implementation if organizations practice such green habits habitually and not only for a day or two in celebration of Earth day or otherwise. Even small contributions worldwide can have help in reversal of the present deteriorating health of our environment.
Some tips on healthy green habits at work:
- Recycle paper
- Do not print out documents which can be easily read or edited online, paper is precious
- Use your own mugs and glasses instead of the foam and plastic cups
- Put computer on the sleep mode at a shorter duration
- If you feel that turning down the thermostat at your workplace can still result in comfortable working condition or even turned off at certain days, then inform your building management, do not assume someone else will
- What type of lighting is used in your office area? Can you propose/convince your management to consider planning on some areas of natural lighting when remodeling or planning on a new office?
- Place some plants around your work area to make it greener
- Bring lunch from home, takeouts and even eating at cafeteria means using plastic spoons, forks, foam cups and plates, all these adds to the garbage every day. Bringing your own reusable lunch containers and home cooked food fosters healthy eating habits as well.
- Turn off computer and lights when leaving work
- Carpool to work whenever possible and use public transport at least a few times a year, or bike to work if feasible
- If you practice green habits at work and home, tell and influence your colleagues and friends
Our Present Habits at Work
Research among more than 1,000 employees found the workplace behaviour of many sat in sharp contrast to their environmental efforts at home. While 94% said they switched off domestic lights whenever they weren't using them and 85% said they switched off their home computer after use, only 66% turned off lights in the workplace and only 53% shut down their computer at the end of the day. When it came to making a hot drink, over half of those questioned (54%) said they would only boil the amount of water they needed at home, while fewer than 10% said they did the same at work. (Source: Guardian)
What the Organizations can do on their part to provide a Green Workplace
- Apply green building principles to your office buildings. They affect natural resources, land use, energy use, worker and public health, and community well being. With sustainable design - or green building - tools, the federal government can protect human health and worker productivity, reduce costs and risks, and build with greater responsibility towards future generations. Green Building principles lead to building in greater harmony with the environment, consciously sustaining and renewing natural resources. (http://ofee.gov/sb/sb.asp) (Source: http://www.earthday.gov/atwork.htm)
- Clean Green. Using environmentally preferable cleaning supplies helps reduce pollution. (http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/products/index.htm)
- Organize "cleaning weeks" and free recycling opportunities at your campus
- The company officials also can take charge and organize monthly or bi-monthly "green work environment" meetings for all employees. In such meetings update and inform employees on how they can contribute to a healthy work environment and what the organization is doing to contribute to a greener workplace.
- Initiate installation of solar power at the office, even a small step can be a large contribution
- If possible use company buses and shuttles for employee commute, else provide incentives for carpooling and public transport usage
Resources on being Green at Work:
Read more on these tips at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/atwork.htm
Looking for more tips to help the environment while at workplace? Perhaps a good resource would be the book titled: True Green @ Work: 100 Ways You Can Make the Environment Your Business, published by the National Geographic Society
Article by Shweta L. Khare, founder and president of Careerbright and Speakbright and courtesy of Careerbright blogspot
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