we are going green

Tips for a sustainable office space

Peter O’Connor & Son are going green. We realise that our personal and corporate responsibility towards the environment goes beyond following regulations. As a result, we have decided to action to minimise our environmental impact. In the past year, we’ve halved our paper usage as we move towards creating a paperless environment in our offices. Here are some other ways to promote sustainability in an office space.

What is a sustainable office space?

Formal definitions of a sustainable office vary. Most centre around new buildings, but this need not be the case. We can sustainably manage older buildings too.

According to Bond Collective, a sustainable office is “a workspace that promotes ecological and environmental balance by reducing — or avoiding entirely — the depletion of natural resources.”

Moving towards sustainable practices is good for the environment and the company. Sustainable practices save costs and foster a sense of environmental awareness among employees, such as understanding how much waste they produce and how to reduce this.

Reduce waste

The first step towards sustainability is to reduce waste. This reduction applies to all business areas, from manufacturing to administration and cleaning. Analyse your business and office practices to identify areas where waste is produced. Change these to sustainable practices one at a time.

Instead of using single-use plastic or paper cups, use reusable mugs and plates. Use eco-friendly cleaning supplies and practices.

Online waste is also an important factor. Minimise the amount of data you store by cleaning up storage space and deleting unnecessary files. This reduces the disc space needed on a hosting platform, thus decreasing the environmental impact.

If you can’t get around eliminating waste (yet), recycle the waste.

Go paperless or paper light

In an office environment, paper is often a notable culprit in non-eco-friendly practices. We’ve reduced our printing considerably and managed to half our paper usage in 2022. We hope to be completely paperless by 2024 

To this end, we avoid printing as far as possible. We print double-sided and use paper from sustainable sources when printing essential documents. We reuse failed print jobs for scrap paper.

Use energy-saving appliances, equipment, and supplies

Offices use electricity and a host of appliances. Reduce your office’s energy usage by replacing incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent or LED bulbs, which use far less energy. When purchasing new appliances for your office, ensure they are energy-saving to minimise their environmental impact.

Green web hosting

The web hosting industry is notorious for high pollution levels since they aim to be always on. However, there are an increasing number of green hosting providers, so shop around to find one. This will considerably decrease your company’s environmental footprint.

Start Small

Rome wasn’t built in a day. In the same way, you can’t go completely green overnight. Start small, for example, by turning everything off at night. Take baby steps, building on your success, until you reach your goal. By working towards sustainability incrementally and intentionally, you will build a strong foundation of sustainable practices, embedding this in your company culture.

At Peter O’Connor and Son, we care for our planet and future. Contact us today for more information on sustainable office practices and the legislation involved.