Tips to Reduce Work Related Impact on Environment

As we pay the utility bills, we are all highly conscious of the usage of power and water in our homes. However, does this extend to our workday life? We all claim to care about the environment, but this should be reflected in every facet of our life and not just when we are at home. Helping our companies save on their energy bills can go a long way towards keeping the environment green for our kids to enjoy. There are many ways we can do this from switching the lights and air conditioners off when we leave the office every day to replacing the current lights with CFL lamps.

The first step would be to have an honest look at all the needs for energy in the office. Try to use excess energy only during off peak times. Encourage colleagues to adopt energy efficient practices like switching the lights off when they leave and leaving their computers on “sleep” mode.

When we purchase equipment for the office, in addition to the initial cost, we should consider their energy usage and buy the most updated equipment which are environment friendly. CFL lamps use 75 per cent less energy than conventional lamps while providing us with the same light. Minimize printing and take printouts only when they are really needed. This will not only reduce paper consumption but also electricity consumption as printers use up power.

All the equipment we use should be switched off at the end of the day whether it is the copier, the shredder or the projector you use in the meeting room. While we may not always keep the AC on at its highest setting in our homes to save energy, we may not think twice about doing that in the office. It would be better though, to keep it at a level that is just enough to keep the office cool and to use a timer that will switch the AC off automatically once it is cool enough in the office.

Another way we can reduce our carbon footprint would be to try and sort out issues through email, phone calls and virtual meetings instead of using vehicles to go to meetings using up our time, petrol and energy.

With ideas like these, it will be quite easy to make quite a significant difference in the office utility bills and the impact of the office on the environment.