Happy Earth Day! While there are numerous things you can do to celebrate our wonderful planet with your friends and family, this is also the perfect time to celebrate with your company. Use this year’s Earth Day celebration as a way to kick-off more eco-friendly options in your workplace.
Celebrate Earth Day in your office by trying one or more of these ideas:
1. Know How Much You Use
According to an article in Inc. magazine, companies need to know how “ungreen” they really are before they can begin to be more green. Checkout the EPA’s Energy Star program that offers tools to help you gauge your energy and water use.
2. Encourage Green Transportation
Have employees spend at least one day participating in more eco-friendly transportation options such as biking or walking to work. In addition, set up a company carpool program where employees work together to decrease the amount of cars on the road each day.
3. Go Paperless
Spend the day in the digital world—using the least amount of paper you possibly can. Use email to send meeting agendas, edit materials online and use file sharing software to communicate and work with your team. If you must use paper, consider printing on both sides of one sheet and set printers so they won’t print test pages.
4. Email Encourage Others
Have employees put a simple tag line at the end of their emails encouraging people to not print out the message. An example: “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”
5. Put Your Computers to Sleep
According to the EPA website, simply putting your computer to sleep can save $10-$50 per computer each year. Encourage employees to make sure their computers are “sleeping” when not in use.
6. Keep it Clean Indoors
Use natural, nontoxic cleaning products such as those we have in our Ecospirit™ product line to keep your office clean and healthy. If you can, consider hiring an eco-friendly cleaning company such as GreenHouse Eco-Cleaning, producing a healthy environment for employees and guests.
7. Plant It Up
The more green plants you have in your office, the more healthy your office air will be. Give each employee a plant for his or her desk or fill a conference room or hallway with new green life. And, don’t forget about the outside. Bring in small garden tools and plants and have teams of employees spend the day outside making your company naturally beautiful.
8. Bring In Lunch
Instead of everyone heading out to lunch, have employees bring in their own food creations from home—asking them to bring it in reusable containers and using reusable utensils. If you are able, consider hosting lunch for your employees—bringing in locally grown and sustainable food options.
9. Dispose of Your Electronics
Work with a local organization to help your company—and its employees—dispose of electronics in a safe way. Have a collection box available with a list of acceptable items and make arrangements for the box to be picked up once it is filled. Look around the office for old electronics, but also encourage employees to bring items from home.
10. Host A Recycle Challenge
Even if your company has a recycling program, Earth Day is a great day to reintroduce it to everyone. Create a team competition—giving each work team their own recycling bin and see which team can recycle the most material.
Talk to us: What is your company doing to celebrate Earth Day this year?