Offices are such huge industrial spaces it is only natural that they use a lot of energy. Not only thing, they chug out a lot of waste. Whether this is literal rubbish or greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, they certainly aren’t the most environmentally-friendly places on earth.

There are a few things you can do around the office to try and make it as eco-friendly as possible. Who knows, you might even earn some extra brownie point from your boss for making the business as efficient as possible.

1. Up your recycling game

There is no excuse not to be recycling now! All buildings have access to recycling bags and recycling bins. All you need to do is work out where to put the bins and which days they will be collected, to make sure you leave them out. Not sure what you can and can’t recycle? No worries – read this for advice. You need to be recycling everything you can from the toilet paper rolls to the plastic water dispenser cups. Don’t let any sneak through the net as it adds up super quickly. Make sure you let the rest of the office know so everyone starts recycling too – you don’t want to end up with all your recyclables still chucked in the bin!

2. Get eco-friendly accessories

There are eco-friendly alternatives for pretty much everything you can think of nowadays, and office accessories are no different. Places like Matshop have environmentally friendly office and door mats available that you could buy as needed. Filing and folders are real offenders when it comes to waste-making. Consider getting recyclable filing made from cardboard, or another recyclable material, to keep waste to a minimum. Similarly, all-cardboard notebooks make much less waste than ring binders. People often remember to just put the whole thing in recycling when they are done, but ring binders seem to end up in the bin much more.

3. Avoid using fans and stand-alone heaters

Fans and stand-alone heaters are seriously bad when it comes to draining energy supplies. When the weather heats up, just open the windows to help cool your office space. The fresh air will do the whole team good too. Things get a little trickier when it gets cold and the office needs heating up. But there are plenty of eco-friendly alternatives to heating the office, like this. Before you reach for the heater, pull on a jumper and make yourself a hot drink. That little bit of movement might be all you needed to warm up!

4. Think about work transport

If you’re in charge, you should seriously consider offering some kind of cycle to work scheme for your employees. If this is not possible, try and organise some sort of a discount deal with a local bike shop. Cycling is by far the most environmentally-friendly way for employees to be travelling in. Aside from this, encourage everyone to share lifts where they can if they absolutely have to drive.

5. Be energy efficient

Always make sure you turn everything off at the end of the day. It’s incredible how many people will happily leave the office without turning their computer monitor off. You need to turn the computers off at the mains as well as the screen; nothing should just be left sat on standby. Similarly, all lights need to be switched off. A great way to ensure this happens is by having motion-sensitive lights installed wherever possible. This means that lights will only come on when someone is in the room i.e. only when light is actually needed in the room.

6. Buy green energy

If being energy efficient is really difficult in your office, you can purchase your very own green energy tariff. This will help to reduce your company’s carbon emissions considerably. If we’re going as green as possible, the best way to operate would evidently by producing your own renewable energy! This is quite difficult to enforce in an office space that already exists so may not be feasible. However, if you’re starting up your own business and want it to be as environmentally aware as possible, this is something to look into.

7. Working from home

Although this isn’t possible for every organisation, it is perfectly viable for many. Allow employees to work remotely or suggest yourself that working from home is a good idea. This doesn’t have to be permanent – it could be for a couple of days a week. Or it could be a rotation system where employees swap in and out a certain number of desks. This limits office space taken up and therefore limits emissions, waste and so on. This also reduces the amount of pollution that each employee will make on their commute in. Win, win!