Mindzle

The 'Go Green' Campaign by IBM

You can’t move these days without hearing about how you can cut your CO2 emissions in your home, with ad campaigns, government policies and constant news coverage. An army of newly-enlisted eco-warriors are going about switching to energy saving bulbs, insulating their lofts and stopping putting their TVs on standby.  That’s all well and good, but carbon emissions from individuals is just a tiny piece of the pie.  The fact is that the majority of the world’s carbon footprint comes from businesses, offices and workplaces.It’s like an economy of scale – if you change a small thing within a big company you can see tremendous results.

Yes, I hear you say. I don’t have any control over that. That’s the job of my boss, and my boss’s boss – nothing to do with me. But that’s just not the case. If you have a job, you can affect your company’s carbon emissions.  And it can make a much bigger difference than the things you do at home.

Here are some pointers, small and large, on achieving a greener workplace:

1. Recycle office waste. Offices throw out a huge volume of paper and other recyclable waste every week – much more than any family could manage. Why not try bringing in recycle containers in accessible locations. There are local government schemes that can help you get these in place.
2. Drive less to work. Emissions from car exhausts are so harmful, and they can be cut by starting a fairly simple car pooling system. Or just cut out the car altogether – consider cycling or walking to work.
3. Switch to energy saving lightbulbs. Changing a couple of bulbs at home saves only a tiny bit of energy. But multiply that by all the bulbs lighting up your office and you can see how powerful a change this could make.
4. Eco-Friendly Computers. The energy usage of IT systems is huge for the majority of companies and organisations. Just a simple thing like making sure you switch off your monitor after work can be hugely effective. Why leave it there, though – for real results, get on to your IT manager about reviewing the company’s “green baseline”. Get them to perform some proper asset tracking on all office IT equipment, using professional asset management software, a business can dramatically reduce its carbon footprint and help meet increasingly stringent government environmental requirements.
5. Campaigning. Move from baby steps to giant leaps. Get like-minded colleagues together to run green campaigns and the real revolution begins.We little guys can really make a difference by putting pressure on the managers to take their environmental duties seriously. A lot of the time going green also saves the company some green, as the IBM ad shows brilliantly.Many companies are involved in using corporate vehicles in some way, from company cars to global freighting of goods, and this is a huge source of carbon emissions. Pushing them to properly review their transport and logistics management and make the smallest of improvements can save them big money and dramatically reduce their carbon footprint in the process.

These ideas are just the beginning. This article was primarly aimed at getting your juices flowing about this issue. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!