World Environment Day – tips for a greener workplace

Yesterday, millions of people across the globe did their bit to observe World Environment Day.

The annual event, spearheaded by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), this year had the theme of ‘Think, Eat, Save’, to particularly highlight the issue of food waste. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.

Doing your bit

World Environment Day also encourages people, as ‘global citizens’, to share ideas and talk about the issues affecting our environment. Businesses have a particular responsibility to ensure they act in an environmentally-friendly manner and position themselves as role models to others.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Have an office brainstorm
  Encourage your team members to come up with at least one idea each for how to make a green office environment and discuss these to create a final set. List these down as your environmental commitments and stick to them. The teamwork and idea sharing should also help boost staff morale.
• Reconsider workplace transport
  It may be simpler than you think to launch a car sharing or cycle to work scheme. You could offer an incentive, such as a free bike lock or lights, to those who take on the challenge. Or revamping your workplace transport routines could be as simple as emailing a guide to local public transport to each of your employees.
• Grow your own
  Plants are a fantastic way to brighten up and breathe life into any office space, so why not take this a step further and grow herbs, chillis or peppers in your workplace?  These plants will create natural scents in your office and you can use the produce to go into healthy salads.  A bright, sunny windowsill will help the plants to thrive, and your employees will be able to use their new green-fingered skills at home.
• Stamp out fridge waste
  At some point, almost every office fridge will have a mouldy salad or yoghurt lurking at the back, which no one will own up to. Help to stamp out the waste – and the smells – by allocating a different area of the fridge to each staff member, or asking them to write their name on their items. This way you can introduce ‘fines’ for any food left lingering past its sell-by date, and the money can be donated to charity.

Shout about it

Use social media, your website or a newsletter to publicise your environmental commitment and offer advice to your customers or suppliers.

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