(Akiit.com) As much as regular people are encouraged to do their bit to help save the planet, so too should businesses both great and small. You could argue that enterprises should be the ones leading the charge, rather than encouraging (read: shaming) the general public for not being as sustainable as they could be.
If you own a business, the onus is now on you to lead by example. It’s not enough to merely claim that you care about our planet, but instead back up your words with actions. Thankfully, helping your office go green is not as tricky as some organizations make it out to be, and you can start small before tackling more significant issues.
To help you get started, here are six effective solutions to help you make your office more eco-friendly.
Energy Efficient Appliances
An office is expected to keep the lights on all day, Monday to Friday. Your employees need to see when doing their work. However, instead of using those harsh fluorescent bulbs, consider investing in energy-efficient bulbs and even think about switching your electricity provider to a renewable source if possible.
Lights aren’t the only issue, though. You can also think of the refrigerator, and any additional office appliances, including the water cooled chiller that keeps the office cool on hot summer days. 
Making this switch will not only help contribute to improving the environment, but also free up your office budget to dedicate towards different ways to help improve operations, or if you’re feeling generous, you can donate it to a worthy environmental cause.
Laptops Over Desktops
Office life has gotten used to working all day at a desktop PC, but these PCs are often, for lack of a better word, awful. The software is outdated. The system is clunky. The startup speed is so slow you feel like you miss out on hours of work every morning.
Desktop PCs are also massive energy drains because they cannot operate without an AC power source. Compare these to laptops, which can run on battery, and you can already see why using laptops over desktops is better for your company.
Another benefit of laptops is their portability and small footprint. By introducing company laptops (or encouraging employees to use their own), you offer them greater freedom around the office and take up half the space.
Digitize Your Files
Paper waste is another massive issue that affects the sustainability of an office. Information is printed off, data is printed off incorrectly, and information is discarded. Rinse and repeat.
Electing to digitize your files and data will help reduce the footprint created by the endless stream of printed paper and storage. It’s also easier for referencing and finding information. Instead of searching through a filing cabinet, you can search the terms you are looking for. This makes office operations more efficient and also provide more space in the office, which will make the environment less stuffy and more enjoyable to be in, especially for those working 9-5, and maybe beyond.
However, like anything stored online, you must ensure you have reliable cybersecurity in place to protect delicate information regarding employees, clients, and finances.
Encourage Public Transport or Car Pooling
Depending on the size of your office, you may have hundreds of people driving to work every day and that same hundred driving back every evening. The emissions created by these cars, which often only carry a single person, have a damaging effect on the environment, so it’s time to encourage your employees to use alternative methods of transportation.
The distinct options are public transport and carpooling, which can reduce the carbon footprint by up to 4800 pounds every year. While carpooling does not boast such impressive numbers, it’s still preferable to multiple people traveling to work individually.
Even these modes of transport can affect the environment, though, so ideally, you’d want to encourage as many of your employees to cycle, run, walk, or even scooter to work. However, because of the distance between home and the office, this is not always possible.
Incentivize Sustainability
It can be a challenge to get everybody on board when it comes to trying to foster a culture of sustainability in the office, but it’s not impossible. Managers can think about incentivizing sustainable practices to motivate resistant employees to think more about their effect on the environment.
Setting goals and offering rewards for embracing a more sustainable lifestyle should encourage more of your employees to get involved with doing their bit for the environment. You shouldn’t need to turn it into a competition. However, sometimes this is the best way to get everybody involved.
With time, though, you should create habits that will become automatic, so you can gradually phase the competition aspect out of the office.
Sustainable Consultancy
Sustainability is not that easy for all businesses, and because every business is different, you might find that some of these solutions do not apply to you. If you’re serious about embracing more sustainable practices for the office, you can work with sustainable consultancy firms, which can visit your office and give you advice on the best solutions to take.
You might find that some practices you thought were benefiting the environment turn out to be more harmful than you thought, and a sustainable consultant can assist with giving you a nudge in the right direction.
With this professional help, you’ll get clear, helpful instructions on how to improve your office operations to create a more sustainable environment, and you can hit your sustainability goals much more accessible.
An Office for the Future
Creating a sustainable office is not something that you should resist for much longer. If you do, you risk damage to your reputation, a loss of respect from clients and customers alike, and the potential for history to look back on you as someone with your head in the sand.
As a business owner, you always want to be at the forefront of innovation and lead trends, so what’s stopping you from taking charge of one of the biggest trends facing the planet today?
Staff Writer; Terry Adams