Five Office Tips to Help You Go Green and Save Money
Going green is not just the latest trend. Smart business owners have always looked to improve efficiencies and reduce waste. “The challenge,” says Steven Hastert president of Record Nations “is in knowing where to start and how to follow through.”
Hastert asks: Is it enough to recycle office paper? How much should we encourage car pooling? How do such practices affect a company's bottom line?
Here are five simple tips to help start you on the right path.
1. Create a Meaningful Paperless Plan.
The average U.S. office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year. Hastert says company principals should pay more than lip service toward creating a paperless environment, and even consider giving up their printers. “Every time an employee prints a document, they should ask themselves if it could be delivered electronically. If the answer is yes, Hastert says don't push the print button. Hastert advocates posting business documents to a server, and distributing press packets via email and Twitter. “There is almost always an electronic alternative,” he says.
2. Leverage scanning technology.
Maintaining paper copies of archived business documents is costly to a business and the environment. Hastert encourages companies of all sizes to find out how much it costs to hire a document scanning service to scan your old documents and implement an electronic filing system.
The new systems will save valuable space, provide an easy way to read the documents 20+ years in the future, adhere to federal record retention guidelines, and provide security for your company archives.
3. Offer Green Parking Spaces.
These spaces are designated for employees with fuel-efficient cars, hybrids, or carpools.
4. Install light sensors in the bathrooms and hallways.
Motion-detecting sensors turn lights on only when needed. Also, if your business replaces incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL), it will reduce your electric bill. The energy used for lighting constitutes approximately 40% of an offices electric bill.
5. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Make it easy for your employees to recycle everything your company collects. Almost all office paper (including fax paper, envelopes, and junk mail) can be recycled. An easy way to get two jobs done is with a paper shredding service. They not only recycle the paper they shred but cost less than using your employees to do the job.
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