6, Use Public Transport or Car Share for Business Trips
Use shared or public transportation for business trips.
Using public transportation is another strategy to lower your carbon footprints if you have to travel to business meetings or events in person, especially if only one person will be travelling.
The average carbon footprint of travel per passenger per kilometre per mode of transportation is displayed in the graph below from Our World in Data.
As you can see, a single-passenger automobile trip in a midsize, gasoline-powered car results in a carbon footprint of roughly 192g per km. This is 42g more carbon dioxide per passenger than the typical long-haul economy trip! Utilizing national train services or other forms of public transportation is significantly more environmentally friendly. Wherever it is feasible, car sharing is a fantastic choice. As seen in the above table, a two-person gasoline automobile emits fewer grammes of carbon dioxide per passenger than a bus.
7, Invest in Green Energy & Green Office Equipment
Another excellent strategy to lessen your company's carbon footprint is to invest in green energy and eco-friendly office supplies. The majority of energy suppliers offer green tariffs. You might also spend money on developing your own renewable energy sources. If your company has the financial resources, solar panels are a fantastic solution.
Solar energy is used to run computers, phones, hand dryers, and even our beloved coffee maker at the Shred Station headquarters. We can lower our carbon footprint by using solar energy, and we won't have to worry about energy prices going up. Using solar power also lowers our offsetting expenses because electricity use is evaluated as part of our CarbonNeutral® corporate accreditation.
Here are a few simple steps you may do to lower your energy use at the office:
When leaving the office, switch to LED lighting and turn off the lights. If there is sufficient natural light to work comfortably during the day, think about turning off the lights.
Utilize kitchen appliances with a high energy rating, such as refrigerators or dishwashers.
Turn on battery and energy conservation settings on all PC and mobile work equipment.
Lower the thermostat setting in the workplace. Just one degree of temperature reduction might save 13% on space heating!
Encourage your workers to wear proper attire for the weather or consider wearing seasonal work uniforms. For instance, you may provide a heavyweight polo during the summer and a thick sweater during the winter. This may reduce the need for winter heating and summer air conditioning.
8, Start Offsetting Carbon
Another option to balance your overall greenhouse gas emissions is to offset your carbon emissions. Even better, you can achieve carbon neutrality by bringing your overall emissions to zero. Depending on your carbon outputs, the cost will vary, but a partner in carbon-neutral certification will help you locate the most affordable choice for your company.
The proof that you are committed to minimising your environmental impacts can also be shown to your customers by obtaining carbon-neutral certification. A greenhouse gas assessment outlining the emissions from your business's regular operations is frequently part of the certification procedure. Assessments typically include information on items like waste production, company vehicle mileage, and utility usage. These will be independently confirmed, after which a variety of projects to offset your emissions can be suggested. These can range from initiatives like planting trees to purchases of renewable energy farms.
However, even offsetting carbon won't make up for years of heedless disregard for the amount of carbon your organisation generates. In addition to offsetting, you should also implement other environmental regulations and methods of lowering emissions.
9, Plant Trees
It's a terrific approach to improve employee health and further offset your company's carbon emissions to plant trees or even having a staff garden. There are numerous online tree-planting initiatives available if you don't have the space to plant your own trees or wildflowers. For a few pounds, you can even plant trees with some initiatives. Even while you might not be able to watch the trees grow in person, you can still make a difference by supporting important biodiversity initiatives and planting trees in regions of the world where they are most needed. With certain tree-planting initiatives, you'll even get a certificate that lists the number of trees you've planted, their locations, and the quantity of carbon they will absorb once they are fully grown.
We have a Shred a Tonne, Plant a Tree programme in place at Shred Station. In accordance with this programme, our clients can choose to have a tree planted for each tonne of paper they shred with us. The Shred a Tonne, Plant a Tree initiative is simple to run and beneficial to the environment.
10, Buy Used Office Furniture
In addition to saving your business some money, purchasing used office supplies is better for the environment. Reusing and recycling products, as was already noted, prevents further loss of natural resources like wood and metal.
Purchasing old office furniture doesn't necessarily mean getting low-quality items, though! Most businesses will sell their outdated equipment to a secondhand office furniture firm if offices close or are renovated. Even high-end office furniture brands like Herman Miller and Haworth can be found in these consignment stores for a fraction of what they would normally cost—often for less than what new, low-mid-range office furniture would cost!
A fantastic method to lessen your carbon footprint is to purchase office furniture made from recycled or sustainably sourced materials, such as bamboo desks and recycled polypropylene canteen seats.
11, Talk to Your Employees – and Your Customers!
Your staff will be more supportive of your environmental efforts if you talk to them about the environment and ask them for their own ideas on how your business can battle climate change. Additionally, it might give kids a sense of pride and purpose in helping to lessen environmental problems. Your best resource will always be your workforce. Their input and participation are crucial for ensuring that the entire business is successful in cutting emissions, recycling, and using less energy.
Your eco-policies and efforts to lessen your carbon impact are also likely to be positively received by your customers. Consumer preference trends show that consumers like purchasing eco-friendly goods and services. They're even prepared to pay more to accomplish it.
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