Today there are fewer and fewer companies that does not care about being more sustainable. A movement which i.a. The UN's 17 global goals, which were launched in 2016, kicked things off. But it can seem like an insurmountably large task to get started on. Because where to start? What effort is it important for YOUR company to commit to, and how do you get a sustainable company to also make a profit.
In this article, we do not provide the answer to that big question. Instead, here you get 13 simple things you can do in your company that both help the environment and which can be used to put sustainability on the agenda - while you work with the very big questions of value chain, ethics, sustainable production and sustainable products.
All the good recycling habits we have at home, we often forget at the office. A simple measure to become more sustainable is to make sure recycling bins are available and that employees know how to sort their waste. Consider whether the office machinery and materials can be recycled, repaired or used for something completely different. It is not certain that your discarded computer needs to be thrown away.
It may seem like a small thing to use a disposable cup, but over a year, it turns into many cups. And multiply that with the entire company - it quickly becomes an enormous number of cups.
A lot of waste could be saved if everyone switched to reusable cups.
If you have a canteen, don't put more food on your plate than you can eat. The amount of food that is thrown out from a buffet can be very large. If you order food from outside, consider whether you can order together. It saves both on packaging and on transport.
For employees, the office does not really feel like one's own responsibility, and it is therefore easy to lose track of the amount of waste. To gain useful knowledge and motivate everyone to act more consciously, you can try weighing your waste. Way e.g. the office's or company's total amount of waste for a week. It gives you specific data to work with and makes it easier to set goals to reduce the amount of waste.
You can also try making waste reduction a fun task by making it a competition. Eg. who can print at least in january? Which team generates the least waste? It can make it more interesting to get teams to work together to build more sustainable habits.
What becomes a goal is done. Map and therefore monitor your energy consumption for e.g. to identify energy waste and compare the company's energy consumption with the consumption of similar companies. Such a benchmark analysis can be a good indicator of whether you use relatively much or little energy. Your energy consumption can be lowered by choosing energy- and resource-efficient products, energy-optimising your building and saving water
Check whether your building is properly insulated. Here you can save a lot of money. In everyday life, you can also help save on heat, e.g. by closing radiators when you ventilate.
Even small things can make a difference, like remembering to turn off the lights when you leave the bathroom, turning off the computer when you go for a break, and only printing documents when absolutely necessary. Put a motion sensor on the light, turn off or set timers on equipment.
If the above actions seem unmanageable, big data and other automation can help you. Eg. light and heat can be automated to reduce unnecessary consumption. In addition, your phone and computer can be set to turn down the brightness or to use less power if you are not using its full capacity.
If you have a dress code in the company, consider whether it makes sense to adapt it, so that you are not sitting in a jacket and tie in the middle of summer and therefore have to turn up your air conditioning. Introduce a dress code adapted to the climate.
Invest in energy-friendly computers and switch to LED lights. Buy paper that is responsibly produced – in short, choose greener materials and
Hold more video meetings rather than spending resources traveling to physical meetings. However, remember that the internet is also an energy guzzler, so use this wisely. Use green transport solutions to a greater extent. Company bicycles, electric cars, travel cards for trains. Fly less to fairs, conferences etc.
By collaborating with sustainable partners, you reduce your CO2 impact. Think about this both in connection with purchases for the office, paper, office machines, computers can be purchased more or less sustainably, but of course also in connection with the production of your products, although it is of course a less simple solution than the others we have shared here.
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