Not a lot of people are aware of just how many opportunities for going green there are in a typical office. Anything from adjusting the lighting to picking more eco-friendly products – there are so many different ways you can make your office eco-friendly. Along with green living, many people are opting for green working. Here are some of the best eco-friendly office ideas for 2021-2022.
Choose Eco-friendly Office Supplies
One of the easier things that you can do when you are running an office is to choose green products like staple-less staplers and refillable pens, rather than using them and sending them to a landfill. Finding products that are made out of post-consumer content has become really easy and it is not as expensive as it used to be. If you can’t fully eliminate products that have no eco-friendly alternatives make sure that you cut down on their use. Another important thing is that you recycle everything that you can.
Pick Sustainable Wood
The World Wildlife Foundation has proven that forests cover around 31 per cent of the land area on this planet. But with the increasing demand for wood, there are so many forests that are completely destroyed. One of the best ways you can help protect the forests and the whole earth is to choose sustainably sourced wood when you are decorating the interior of your office.
Sustainable wood comes from forests that are managed sustainably and specially grown so they prevent damage to wildlife, ecosystems and the trees themselves. Adding that type of wood will still provide you with the same natural accents and it will give the same warmth to the space, it will just be in an eco-friendly way. It can also work great if you are looking to reduce noise around the workplace, so that’s always a big plus.
Eliminate Assigned Office Spaces
The days of normal cubicle offices are in the past. Many offices are ditching the normal walls and replacing them with open-floor areas which give employees more freedom as well as some creativity. But with all the energy-saving benefits that come with having an open floor plan office, you still need to have at least one enclosed office for private meetings. Instead of going a traditional way, look for innovative ways to enclose the space. One of the most popular ways is planting a living green wall. It will not only divide your space; it will make the whole office space a much calmer and cleaner environment to be in.
Be Mindful About Heating and Cooling
Almost every office has a thermostat. Instead of leaving it on super warm during wintertime, and super cold during summer, turn it off when the office space is not occupied. Your normal temperature should be 78 Fahrenheit when occupied. Another important thing is to make sure that your heating and cooling systems are working as efficiently as possible. Regularly check that there isn’t any heat loss around the doors or windows, and if there is, make sure you are using weather stripping and caulking to fix it.
Include Polished Concrete Floors
When you are talking about floors, there are two types that have high sustainability. The first ones are floors that reduce the maintenance and replacement efforts and the second one are floors that don’t require any electricity to be cleaned. Most commercial places that are trying to be more eco-friendly choose something called epoxy terrazzo. But that is quite expensive if you are a smaller business. The best alternative for your needs is polished concrete. It comes in so many different designs and provides amazing durability, and all that’s needed to clean it is a broom.
Install Smart Lighting
One of the best ways you can make your lighting situation eco-friendly in an office is by adding automated systems. Motion detector lights are a very good way of ensuring that the light is used only when needed. As for light fixtures, choose bulbs like fluorescent ones because they use less energy. Of course, make use of all the natural daylight you can to reduce the use of artificial lighting during daytime.
Purchase Upcycled Furniture
There is nothing more sustainable than recovering old materials and making new things out of them. Instead of getting your furniture from famous chain stores, choose to get furniture that is refurbished, repurposed and made out of recycled or recyclable materials. Luckily, upcycled furniture has found its way to 2021 and there are so many different upcycled pieces you can equip your office with.
In order to keep your spot in an environmentally conscious society, you as a commercial office need to lower your carbon footprint. Start small – the changes don’t have to be drastic. Over time you will build your eco-friendly office. Every single thing you do is making a change.
We hope you found this blog post Moving Furniture – A Guide useful. Be sure to check out our post How to Reduce Energy Consumption in Business for more great tips!
Have Experience in the Moving Industry? Want an Additional Income Stream? Work With All Around Moving!
Partner with All Around Moving Services Company, Inc., and we’ll guide you to profit. Click here to learn more.
