Going green is an admirable goal for any business. Customers, clients, employees, and investors are likely to appreciate your efforts, and there are plenty of simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint without sacrificing earnings or productivity. Here are some areas to consider. 

3 Tips for Making an Office More Sustainable

1. Cut Down on Energy Use

Offices use a lot of electricity to power their computers, printers, lights, appliances, and HVAC systems. Many of these functions are essential to your operations, but there may be some unnecessary power drains as well. Replace old fixtures like fluorescent or incandescent lights with energy-efficient LEDs, make sure the office is insulated to keep HVAC usage down, and unplug electronics or appliances whenever they’re not in use to cut the number of fossil fuels needed for your operations. 

2. Offset Paper Usage

It’s not realistic for many offices to cut out paper usage altogether. However, you can instead make sure that enough new trees are planted to make up for the paper that you do use. The PrintReleaf® program allows offices to calculate paper usage from their printers and then plant the corresponding number of trees at reforestation sites around the world. 

This allows you to minimize your carbon footprint without cutting out essential activities like printing client contracts or other important documents. 

3. Make Recycling Easy

Recycling old cans, paper, and boxes can limit the amount of waste going into landfills and reduce the need for new raw materials. Your employees are more likely to recycle if it’s just as easy as throwing trash away, so keep a bin near every garbage can and put up signs reminding people to recycle. 

You can even drop off old electronics and appliances with specialized recycling centers to prevent the heavy metals in those items from contaminating the local soil and water. 

If you’re interested in offsetting your paper usage without sacrificing productivity, Laser Line in Jessup, MD, can help. The company offers managed print services and office printing equipment, and they partner with the PrintReleaf program to help customers offset their paper usage. Visit the website to see a list of printing services. To speak with a team member, call (410) 636-1700.