In 2016, we will witness many businesses becoming eco-friendly and turning their offices green. There are a couple of reasons why you should decide to do the same. First of all, you would aid in preserving the nature and making the world a better place. Besides this, you would be able to use your eco-credentials as a selling point with customers who are concerned about the environment and want to do business with companies who share their feelings. Making your office eco-friendly is not easy, and if you decide to do so, make sure you take a look at the following solutions.
Use Less Paper
An easy change you can make in your office in order to make it more eco-friendly is trying to cut on your paper usage. You can do this by switching to a Cloud-based software. There are many Cloud apps like eSlip that allow you to create, track and send receipts and invoices electronically, without having to use paper. Other apps like Soon allow employees to share any files back and forth on their devices without having to print anything. Make sure you use apps like this and you will never have the need to print anything in your office.
Be Careful about Lighting
How you light up your office affects your mood but it also heavily affects environment. LED lights are favorite among people who are concerned for the nature. When using LED light bulbs you can reduce your energy consumption by 80-90%. Not to mention that these can last around 100,000 hours. All of this makes them much better and greener solution than a standard bulb. Standard turn only 5-10% of its consumed energy into light while the rest simply goes out as heat. You should also make sure that you use as much natural light as you can. Keep your blinds open during the whole day and consider installing additional window or two.
Carefully Design Your Office
The way you design your office may also have a huge impact on the environment. First of all you have to make sure you use most out of the windows in your office. Do not place anything in front of the window that can block natural light. Also, be sure to choose efficient doors and windows that will not allow heat to come in during the summer and retain it in the office during the winter. This way you will spend less energy trying to cool or heat the place. You should also be careful when choosing furniture. You should try to get furniture from an eco-friendly manufacturer. Turn to JP Office WorkStations if you want to get office furniture from a business that shares your concerns about the environment.
Eliminate All the Energy Vampires
When you are not using PC, phone chargers or other devices you should make sure they are unplugged. All of these devices are commonly referred to as energy vampires – appliances that draw energy simply by being plugged in. What you can do is install a timer on the appliances in your office so you can turn them off in the evening or during the weekends when you are not there. When trying to preserve the nature, all the energy you manage to save counts, so doing this does help a lot and you should encourage your employees and colleagues to do the same.
When it comes to preserving the nature, any effort you make counts and aids in making the world a better place. Make sure you take all of these things in consideration if you want to make your office green.
Sometimes, it’s important to make sure your budget is being spent effectively. If you’re not checking that you’re spending only on things you need, you’ll waste money. Saving money in business is important. Providing you save in the right ways on the right things, that is! Here are some simple ways to save money for your business.
Cut Back on Paper and Ink
Cutting back on paper and ink is one major way businesses can save money. If you look at all of the paper and ink you use, you might be surprised. You can probably cut back on lots of paper and ink. Maybe you can send an email rather than a fax. Maybe you can avoid printing things out. You can also buy specially recycled paper and ink for times when you really do need to print. Go paperless where you can!
Be as Eco-friendly as Possible
Be as eco-friendly as possible and you’ll save a ton of money for your business. You can start by switching things off properly when you leave the office. Leaving lots of equipment on stand by will cost you! You can also start making the most of natural light, rather than having the lights on all of the time. Make the effort to recycle and save on things like water too!
Make Sure You Brief Your Employees
Briefing your employees is an essential step to make sure you’re all on the same page. They should all want to save money and become more eco friendly like you do. If anybody isn’t playing ball, it could be costing you more than you think. Put up some friendly rules on a noticeboard to make sure everybody knows what they should be doing.
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Work to Keep Good Employees
If you end up hiring really great employees, you need to work to keep them. Losing them could cost you more money in the long run when you consider training up a new employee, and even then they might not be as good as the employee that you’ve lost. Make sure you treat them right to encourage them to stay with you for longer.
Outsource
You can outsource so many services. SEO, IT support, content creation, and so much more.
Do a Little Marketing Yourself
You will want to work with a marketing company to get your name out there, but there are small things you can do yourself. Things like creating business cards, working with charities, and writing blog posts. You can also learn different techniques if you have the time. Bear in mind that cutting back in areas like this could also cost you in the long run!
Go Without
Ask yourself: do we really need this? Before purchasing something for the office. Maybe you don’t all need brand spanking new mac computers to get the job done.
Keep Up With Accounting
Keeping up with your accounting is so important! Make sure you have a trustworthy accountant on board.
These simple tips should help you to save quite a bit of money in business. Remember, you should only try to save money in certain areas – be prepared to spend where it matters. Thanks for reading!
When you run a company and want to save money on your electric bills, you should think of ways to conserve. Not only that, when running an office, it is wise to think of the environment in other ways. When doing so, you can protect the planet and save money. Simply put, with these six ideas, you can enjoy saving money and protecting the planet.
Temperature: Without a doubt, if you run an office, you will spend a lot of money keeping people at a comfortable temperature. In the summer, you will probably have to run the air conditioner all the time. In the winter, if you live in a cold place, you will have to run the heater all the time. To save money and keep your appliances in order, you should use an automated machine and remotely monitor the climate. With this, an office manager can make the right decisions and anticipate how much to use the air conditioner or heater. Since this is a major cost, you should find a local service company who can help you figure out the right path. At the same time, you will use fewer resources; this will help you protect the planet.
Casual: In some businesses, a worker can dress casually. If you run an office in one of these industries, you must allow people to dress for comfort and not style. When doing so, a person can dress for the weather. Think about it, when an employee comes in with a full suit, he or she will get hot quickly. On the other hand, if you allow people to wear shirts and shorts, they will not need you to run the air conditioner as often.
Bike rack: If you have an office in the city or near a lot of houses, you should install a bike rack. By encouraging workers to bike to work, an office manager can go a long way in helping the environment. When workers do not drive to the office, they will not use fuel and pollute the air. Therefore, you should encourage people to bike to work.
Windows: If possible, you should try to get free light into the building. Of course, in the summer this may not work very well. On the other hand, in the winter, if you can bring your blinds down, you can let light into the building and save money on electric bills as you will not need to have the lights on all day.
Dishes: It is easy for an office manager to run out and buy Styrofoam and paper cups for workers to use. This is a costly mistake, and you must make the switch to regular dishes. With this, you can offer a safe way for people to eat and drink. At the same time, people will not waste plastic cups and other items.
Work from home: If possible, you should set it up so people can work from their houses. Remember, if they do not jump in their car and come to work, they will use fewer resources. At the same time, the business owner will save money when he or she does not have to pay for their electricity.
With these six tips, you can run a green business. It is not hard as long as you take a proactive and smart approach.
Eco-friendly car technology is all the rage these days. Cars regularly get 30, 40, or 50+ mpg now utilizing several new advancements such as hybrid or electric technology. While some of these technologies still have their limitations, it’s still nice to know that you won’t have to take out a loan to go on an out-of-state road trip this summer.
No matter which technology your automobile uses, you are still producing pollution every time you drive. So when you’re deciding if you should take that great deal on a 2014 Ford Fusion or spend the extra bucks for the hybrid model, you may want to consider the difference in ecological impact between the two options. This infographic compares the ecological footprint caused by hybrid vehicles and your standard internal combustion autos.
