Environmental issues/waste management in the workplace?

Question

anyone know any useful ideas on how to mange the energy we use, and waste (mainly paper) we throw away in the office? Also- any important facts we should know about the environment- not like the obvious ones- but like some statistics etc that can give us a bit more drive to become more eco-friendly?

thanks a lot :)

Answer 1

Depending on the size of your business there are many paper shredding/recycling companies that can provide  service. The document shredders/bins can accomodate paper clips, staples, and folder brackets and they pick up. This works for medium and larger offices, smaller offices may have to collect and drive to the recycler themselves.

Look into ways to reduce the paper. Use email, databases, websites, electronic billing and payment, computer filing.  Encourage employees to not print drafts or emails. Accept digital signatures from PDF where you can so docs don't have to be printed.

For energy: the obvious ones that you'd do in your home - control the thermostat, change lightbulbs, use power strips, turn off lights, computers, equipment. If employees listen to music encourage them to play it on the PC or phone system instead of a radio or CD player.

For statistics I'd suggest creating your own internal stats.  Collect the waste paper for a week and weigh it, then calculate how many trees it took on an online calculator. That way it's personal.  Or have contests, for every $1 saved on the power bill the employees get to share $0.25 or pool it for a prize or party. The company still saves $0.75!

Answer 2

Obviously paper should be recycled but you can also mix shredded paper into home composts, no more than around 10%.

Have an office composter if you have some outside space for one, Teabags, coffee grounds, lunch leftovers, office plant cuttings, grass cuttings if you have a lawn (only a small ammount at a time as grass can kill worms when composting)

The simplest method of reducing energy use is to track consumption if you can.

If you can get a weekly or monthly read out of units used, plot them on a simple graph and put it on the notice board.

When you take energy reduction measures you should be able to show the reasults on your graph

Answer 3

recycle the paper, have motion detectors instead of switches.