This St. Patrick’s Day, don’t just don a green shirt – make sure your office is wearing green, too.
That means more than wearing shamrock antennae to work (although I may do that as well).
Beyond the antics and dyed beer, St. Patrick’s Day has me thinking about a different kind of “green” in the office. Here are some of the green practices we’ve helped our clients (and ourselves) adopt for more sustainable, profitable results. I hope that by sharing them, others might benefit, too.
Power Down, Profit Up
Many of us don’t realize that all the equipment we leave plugged in overnight uses “phantom energy,” drawing standby power that can add as much as 20% to a small business’s electricity bill.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve reduced that expense by moving physical servers to the cloud (where energy is used far more efficiently) and unplugging as much equipment as we can overnight. There’s no reason to spend money powering the photocopier, coffee maker, conference room TV, or microwave when the office is not occupied. The same goes for space heaters, cell phone chargers, radios, and printers.
Even if you don’t want to turn off desktop computers, you can usually shut down their monitors with built-in on/off switches.
An easy way to manage all this is to use timers or plug devices into power strips with easy-to-reach on/off switches. That can help you find the little pot of gold hiding by the power outlets.
Remote and Hybrid Work
Half our energy expense disappeared when our company adopted a hybrid schedule. We’re in the office two days a week and work remotely the other three. That doesn’t even count what our team members save by not commuting three days a week.
Because we’re so mobile, over time, we’ve replaced our desktops with laptops, which are more energy efficient. We use docking stations in the office to get desktop-like benefits while we’re there, and complete portability when we’re not. Over the past few years, we’ve seen many of our clients do the same, greatly expanding their where-to-work options.
Go Paperless
Most offices have significantly reduced their paper dependence over the past 20 years, but many can still go a little further. In our company, virtually all our contracts and agreements are digital now, with signatures collected using DocuSign – taking minutes rather than days. And none of our paperwork uses energy by traveling on FedEx planes or USPS vehicles.
Documents that don’t need signatures but are confidential can still be sent digitally using an encryption service such as SendSafely.com.
All our routine “paperwork” is digital now, and what used to be stored in physical files is now kept in the cloud. Even a tiny one-person office can do this by using features like Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
My favorite way to reduce paper is with digital notetaking. Using smart notebooks like Remarkable or Rocketbook, you can write notes by hand and scan them directly into cloud services or notetaking apps (OneDrive, Google Drive, Evernote, Slack, Trello, iCloud, etc.). Then you just wipe the reusable pages clean and start again.
I don’t even remember the last time we bought a ream of paper. In our office, most of our paper is in the form of paper towels because someone (possibly me) spills the occasional caramel macchiato. As we all know, coffee + keyboard = bad start to the day.
Virtual Collaboration
Video calls and conferences using tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom greatly reduce environmental impact and save considerable amounts for any company’s annual budget. Not only can virtual collaboration reduce the use of jet fuel and auto tires, but also it saves time and promotes productivity. We’re huge proponents of this and use Teams to meet with our clients and colleagues every day.
Green Partners
I read an article recently that encouraged businesses to challenge their vendors to become environmentally conscientious, or alternatively, switch to those who have sustainable practices. The vendors we use are already there – maybe because in our field (technology) it’s often easier to bypass the use of fossil fuels, etc. Still, it’s an idea worth considering if you’re in a field that’s more energy- or resource-dependent.
We focus on being green so our clients know they can rely on us as a vendor with a responsible footprint. Also, we keep energy-related issues in mind when recommending clients update or replace their older technology, and we recycle their used computers and other devices responsibly when their useful life has ended.
Either way – whether you’re a business that relies on vendors or you’re a vendor yourself – it’s more than good karma to be green. It’s good business.
This St. Patrick’s Day, consider what “going green” could mean for your company. I hope our experience will inspire some new ideas for you.
