Is your office as green as your home?

NervousNude

There are some very commendable efforts being made to decrease the environmental impacts of people's homes. However, most of us spend over 50% of our time in the office.

Our office is decidedly 'ungreen'. We barely recycle, and our paper consumption is through the roof. We don't compost, but are quite good at turning off our P.C's at night. (I am partially to blame for this woeful effort as I am supposed to be the environmental officer!). How does your office compare? What initiatives have people's workplaces implemented to boost their company's green credentials?

cor

A green team was set up in our company. Changes made as follows:
No bins under our desks anymore.
Recycle bins for Plastics and cans at each coffee station.
Cardboard "tree huggers" on each desk to collect paper for recycling, and paper recycling bins at each printer.
Any computers still powered on at 7pm that haven't been used within a certain period are automatically powered off by I.T.
Printers automatically print double sided.

Heroditas

Ensure there are proper controls on your air conditioning system and you'll do a massive amount of good work to your green credentials. The best thing to do is implement a "dead band" if possible, i.e. the air conditioning won't cool the office unless the temperature goes over 24C and it won't heat up the office unless the temperature drops below 19C.
You'll also see your electricity bill drop.
If there's a birko boiler in the office and you only have a few people working there, get rid of it and make people use a kettle.
Make sure all PCs hibernate and switch off monitors if inactive for 10mins.
Ensure they are powered down at night
Change the lighting to more efficient lighting
You should see the electricity bill drop by 50-60%!

In my place we have introduced:

Paper/cardboard recycling bins
Birko decommissioned
Better A/C controls
printers, photocopier on green settings

My next step is to change the office lighting but because we rent the office and the owners change the lights anyway, this will be a challenge. However, I fail to see why we should pay more for electricity when it is cheaper anyway to use better, more efficient lights for both parties.
After that, I will get the IT crew to ensure the PCs power down automatically in the evening.

randombar

Very old one but resurrecting, anything to add to the list?

Capt'n Midnight

GaryCocs wrote: »

Very old one but resurrecting, anything to add to the list?

If you'd contributed something maybe.

Like how offices are open during the brightest and warmest part of the day at this time of the year while workers have to provide light and heat at home.

Peak electrical grid usage is around 6-7 pm, with the capital spend that needs too.


Closing zombie thread.