Ways to save money and protect the environment at workplace
Updated: 3 days ago
Author: Michaela Resch
Date of Publication: 28/11/2022
With the persistent energy crisis and the increasing energy prices it's more than ever necessary to save money at your business. But by solving that problem, you can easily also save the environment at the office. Since every company wants to save cash to be competitive, you also have to be eco-friendly because of the environmental laws in each country. So, here are a few tips to do this:
1. Use eco-friendly bulbs
If you change your traditional old bulbs to energy-efficient (halogen or LED) lights it costs about 25%-80% less energy than your old ones'. In fact, the new bulbs will last 3 to 25 times longer than the traditional light bulbs. Therefore, over months and years you can save a lot of money by going with new bulbs. This is because they will reduce your energy costs and you need to buy new bulbs less often.
2. Electrical devices
Another easy tip is to switch everything you don't need off. Maybe the easiest way is to turn off the light when you have enough natural light to work or if you leave the office. If you have a water boiler, only use as much water that you need for a cup of tea and don't fill it up to the maximum level if you don't need it. By using as much water as you need, you can save money and CO2. Last, by using a water cooler rather than an electric stove to heat up your water, you can also save up to 50% of your power consumption.
3. Reduce water consumption
Instead of washing the used dishes by hand, use an energy-efficient new dishwasher. For example, with a dishwasher you can save about 50 liters of water per load compared to hand-washed dishes. A really important thing here is that you fill the dishwasher well before you activate it. This is because it needs the same amount of water for a full or empty machine.
4. Paperless is key
Maybe the easiest way to save both money and protect the environment is to work paperless. All you need is an online archive where you can store your data. Just buy an online archive once and you have all your documents there. In this way you can have access to everything you need wherever you need it and you don't have any paper waste.
5. Recycling
Separate the resulting garbage into plastic, paper, general waste, metal and glass and place bins in each office space. The individual recyclables can be sorted out and sold to recycling companies. This brings additional income. At the same time, the total waste is reduced , something which lowers disposal costs.
To conclude, it is relatively easy to protect the environment and thereby save money. Probably the most difficult task is to make this a habit. Also, it’s challenging to make colleagues aware of how important it is to protect the environment and how easy it is to save money in the process. A good way would be to anchor these guiding principles in the company's guidelines.