Work Greener Part 1

I mentioned before that, according to Chris Goodall's book, 10% of our carbon footprint arises from our workplace. Well, in an exclusive extract from my forthcoming e-book, The Green Business Bible, here's my top ten tips for reducing the carbon footprint of your office:

Top Ten Tips for Offices

1. Run a ‘switch it off’ campaign. Rebut energy myths like “it is more efficient to leave lights on than switch them on and off”;

2. Provide feedback to your staff on energy consumption. Switch it off campaigns work best with real data to back up the message;

3. Purchase Energy Star Compliant office equipment;

4. Upgrade all lighting to the most energy efficient available;

5. Downgrade the level of lighting in non-critical areas. Most corridors are much brighter than they need to be;

6. Install automatic lighting controls, particularly for windowless rooms;

7. Set heating controls to the optimum temperature and make sure they remain there;

8. Make sure your heating tracks the temperature outside in the Spring and Autumn. If staff start opening the windows to ventilate rooms, then energy is being wasted;

9. Install a tea urn rather than individual kettles;

10. Laptop batteries will discharge if you leave them plugged into the wall, whether or not the plug is switched on – unplug them to save the charge.