How green is your workplace?

Most offices waste energy and generate unnecessary rubbish - we've all seen how much recyclable paper and plastic gets needlessly dumped every day. Here are a few easy, practical steps you can take to make your office greener...

We're all getting more aware of the energy that gets wasted in the home, but let's not forget that our workplaces are huge energy-guzzlers too. Offices, for instance, consume huge amounts - and if you've ever worked in one, you'll have seen the quantities of paper, envelopes and disposable cups and drinks cans that are routinely thrown away.

So what can you do to help cut the waste?

Switch off to save electricity
A huge amount of energy is wasted every night because office equipment is left on: almost a third of UK office workers frequently leave their PCs running overnight or over the weekend when they go home, resulting in carbon dioxide (CO ₂) emissions equivalent to the output of 120,000 4x4 cars .

There are many ways you can cut electricity waste in your office.

Switch off your computer when you go home, and turn off the photocopier and printers if you are the last to leave.
Making sure that the power management features on your computer are activated - setting your hard disk and monitor to switch off after a period of inactivity and putting your computer to sleep. Setting it to switch off after 15 minutes will also save around 9kg of CO ₂ (enough to fill 325 party balloons) in a year from your lunch breaks alone - or more if you work away from your computer at times as well.
Turn the monitor off, instead of leaving it on standby when you go home. The monitor can be responsible for up to half of a computer's total electricity consumption. Switching to an LCD monitor can also reduce your screen's energy usage by a third.
Request a laptop. Because laptops are designed to be portable and have a limited battery life, they consume around 85% less energy than desktops even when plugged in.
Don't forget the lights when you leave! Lights needlessly left on all night in empty offices are an obvious waste of energy.

Recycling office waste
Get in touch with your local authority recycling officer to see what services are available for businesses. These may include storage containers or compacting equipment for large amounts of waste paper, as well as the handling of confidential paper waste.

Putting clearly marked recycling collection bins for paper, metal drinks cans and glass bottles in a suitable place in your office makes recycling just as convenient as throwing things in the bin. You can even recycle batteries and CD's.

As well as any council schemes, many companies and charities offer recycling services, so it's worth doing a little research. For more ideas and information, read Waste online's Waste at work information sheet.

You can also:

use recycled paper for office stationery, printers and photocopiers
print or photocopy on both sides of paper
send used photocopier and printer cartridges for recycling: Help the Aged runs a toner recycling scheme for charity.
use scrap paper for phone messages instead of sticky notes

Cut the commuting
The cars we drive to work every day use a huge amount of energy, and produce enormous amounts of carbon dioxide. There are a number of ways to reduce the number of car journeys made to your workplace:

Set up a car pool scheme: a lift-share notice board makes it easy for people to find others who commute from the same area.
Organise your schedule so you can work from home occasionally. Working from home one day a week could reduce your carbon emissions from commuting by 20 per cent. (Based on travelling on four days instead of five, hence 20 per cent less travelling).
Think seasonal: it's best to work from home more in summer than winter, or the energy you save on travel will be offset by the extra energy needed to heat your home in the day. In winter, make sure home office space is well insulated, along with the rest your home, and try to avoid heating areas of the home you're not using, for instance by turning down the thermostatic valves on radiators during the day.
When practical, hold video or phone conferences instead of travelling to meetings.

Other ways you can make a difference

Adjust the energy saving settings on your computer so the monitor and hard disk switch off after 5 minutes and the whole system switches to sleep mode, say, half an hour after that (or whatever suits). Ideally you should shut down your computer completely if you are going to be leaving it for an hour or more.
Introduce a rule that the last one to leave in the evening is responsible for turning off the office equipment and switching off the lights you could also consider installing lighting controlled by time switches or motion sensors.
Bring in a kettle and some mugs to replace disposable cups from drinks vending machines.
Hold a green week and invite suggestions for cutting down on waste and energy consumption.
Cycle to work - instead of driving your car and reduce your CO ₂ emissions. You could ask your employer to investigate Cyclescheme, which works with independent bike shops to supply the nation with quality tax-free bikes for work. Find out more about Cyclescheme.
Replace the traditional light bulbs in your office or workspace with energy saving ones. This will reduce the electricity needed for lighting by up to 80 per cent.
Set up a sustainability group to monitor recycling and waste, investigating greener substitutes for commonly discarded office products.