Tips to Improve Sustainability in the Workplace

Many leading ways of increasing workplace sustainability can actually benefit your business by being more cost-effective long-term than the alternative. All it takes is a glance at Tesla’s sky-rocketing success to see how practicing sustainability can positively impact your business. Even adding some small measures to increase sustainable practices within your business can lead to tremendous success long term.

Recycling materials is just one step out of many that your company can implement. The only limit on ways a business can practice sustainability is imagination. Glancing over the list of companies that made it to the “Green 50: Top 50 Green Companies” proves this and might provide some inspiration. However, here’s a quick list of practices that most companies can utilize to reduce their environmental impact.

Greening Your Company

Company-Wide Sustainability Volunteer Programs–

Intel incentivized their employees to be more environmentally conscious and saw an overall increase in sustainable practices within their offices. As a result of these employee-based sustainability measures, Intel estimates that they’ve saved hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. However, you can also encourage employees to join specific environmental volunteer programs outside company grounds. Make volunteer activities a fun way for you and your employees to connect while positively impacting your community. One option is planting a tree on an employee’s birthday or other special occasions. Planting trees is a great way to improve morale and create a greener environment.

Greening Your Grounds For Sustainability–

If your firm is located in an office building or a city, you might not have the space to plant trees. However, there is still an opportunity to green your work environment for small businesses that don’t have the chance to work on an expansive property. Green walls are a visually appealing way to make a more environmentally friendly environment that doesn’t take up space in the office. They are also great for air filtration within the office and temperature control because of the insulation provided by the plants.

Adopting Sustainable Energy

Adopting clean energy is a practice that many large companies, including Google, utilize. In an impressive move in 2017, Google bought back enough renewable energy to cover 100% of its emissions. Taking advantage of renewable energy is a company-wide course of action that can reduce your carbon footprint and will likely save you money in the long run. On top of being a more affordable option and one that increases positive consumer impressions, renewable energy comes with the additional benefit of government-funded initiatives.

Most firms aren’t tracking their energy usage. Saving money to increase profit is huge for corporations, so it seems strange considering that energy is one of the “… biggest cost areas for companies.” When compared to other company resources, power isn’t managed to the degree of people and product costs. Linking to a smart grid is a great way to track where you’re wasting energy and how you might be able to improve and reduce the amount of money you’re wasting.  

Partner with Nonprofit Organizations for Sustainability

The trend looks like it’s here to stay. Partnering with a nonprofit organization is a great way to encourage sustainability without reworking your whole organization. This partnership can benefit your business in a multitude of ways. Government tax incentives include charitable donations, allowing 100% of charitable donations to be written off as tax-deductible. By working with a nonprofit, you get to support organizations that align with your company’s values, and the costs for your company are potentially minimal.

There are multiple ways to create a lasting relationship with nonprofit organizations. Hosting an event to fundraise is one way to support the nonprofit of your choice. Donating relevant items is another excellent way to support nonprofits if you have the resources. However, donating and hosting fundraisers aren’t the only choices you have. If you’d like to be more directly involved with the nonprofit, you can fundraise by releasing a line of products or services expressly made to support the organization. 

One company that does an excellent job of combining their products and their interest in nonprofit organizations is Lush; as Reddit user, PopstarPaci stated, “The first thing that attracted me to Lush was the aesthetic. All of the plain black pots with the uniform text really appealed to me…Then, after doing further research and seeing that they were very natural, cruelty free, and even vegetarian/vegan I fell in love.” Charity Pot started as a single product that grew into a line of similarly named products that Lush sells.

When consumers buy Charity Pot, they are directly contributing to nonprofit organizations through their “Charity Pot” line, and it’s seen a decent amount of success and brought the company a lot of positive attention. Lush released Charity Pot in 2007, and since then, Lush reports that “customers have bought over 3.5 million Charity Pots, raising an incredible $50 million for 1,850 projects in North America and another 950 around the world.” 

Use Sustainable Materials

Their aim is “An apparel industry that produces no unnecessary environmental harm and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its activities.” They recently ran a campaign on how to upcycle or repair their clothing for continued use. Sustainability as a core value has worked well for them too. They placed first in the Axios Harris Poll of brands with the best reputation. Patagonia was also the only fashion company to make it to the top 10. 

You don’t have to build your brand entirely on sustainability like Patagonia, though. There is an abundance of ways to use sustainable materials in your business model. Many corporations have begun to transition over to sustainable materials for their packaging. For example, you can use recycled cardboard in your packaging or avoid using more harmful packing materials like peanuts or bubble wrap. Recently, there has been a surge in consumer-friendly recyclable packing materials. Big apparel companies like ASOS and Calvin Klein utilize recyclable materials in their packaging and are reducing the number of materials they include when shipping products.

You can also use recyclable materials for packaging your products or creating the products themselves. Plaine Products uses aluminum containers that are 100% recycled and recyclable for their hair care products. They also don’t pack any of their products during the shipping process. To combat the overabundance of plastic waste in the ocean, Adidas uses plastic taken out of the sea to make their shoes, creating a product with the potential to buy to support the initiative. 

On the cutting edge of using sustainable materials are companies that use refillable containers for their products. Using refillable containers can save companies money on throw-away packaging for their products while building an eco-friendly image. Unfortunately, current Covid safety precautions have limited the utilization of refillable containers in most stores. In the future, though, it is an option worth heavy consideration and one that will put you ahead of the competition.

At a more local level, you can provide your workspace with refillable water containers and encourage employees to bring reusable utensils and containers for their meals instead of single-use containers or plasticware. 

Develop a Recycling Program

You might consider creating a team of your work members who are particularly passionate about sustainability and have them develop a plan of action to implement in your office space. Recycling in the office can create a more eco-friendly company environment with far-reaching benefits.

By recycling, you deal with waste in a sustainable way that costs you almost nothing extra. You can take advantage of citywide recycling efforts and more grassroots efforts to reuse old office materials. Examine where you are failing in your current recycling efforts and create a plan of action to deal with it. Consider donating your old office equipment to be reupholstered or upcycle your tech items. 

Taking advantage of new sustainable approaches to the workplace can set your company apart and ahead of other companies. Crafting a plan to join hundreds of major corporations in sustainability can save your company money while also providing your business with a voice that consumers relate to. Whether installing a green wall or switching over to sustainable packaging, there are plenty of opportunities for any company to grow into more sustainable policies.

If your company wants to move forward with sustainability, consider taking advantage of UPCYCLE’s IT Asset Disposition Program. We make it easy for you to tackle tech waste.

We are a nationwide ITAD company that works with schools, hospitals, and major corporations. Learn more about what we do here. We offer free pick-up for organizations disposing of 25+ IT assets.