WORKPLACE sustainability has been a hot topic for years now, not least because it ends up saving the business money by not paying out so much for energy, but the topic needn’t be boring.
Hopefully by now most offices are encouraging staff to use as little energy as possible and setting up car pooling schemes.
But, of course, there is always more that can be done:
Extract energy from your staff
For a long time now bosses have encourage their workers to get up and walk around from time to time to boost concentration and productivity.
But now offices can actually harvest the energy their employees expel, with special tiles.
Pavegen Systems, produces floor tiles that generate electricity through being walked on, as the foot interacts with the tile, it transfers the energy to a battery system which can power an off grid item.
In theory if there were enough tiles and footfall, an entire office could be powered.
Encourage a schwopping scheme.
Here workers can give up a lunchbreak and bring in their old (but in good condition) clothes, books and kitchenware that they otherwise would have thrown away.
Instead of going into landfill, colleagues can pick up some new goods for free (or a donation to a the office’s charity). Any unwanted goods can be collected by a good will soul, and taken to the local charity shop.
Install a community herb or vegetable garden.
It is proven that well-being is positively linked to being close to greenery, and while it is not always practical to work in the park, you can bring the outside indoors. If your company has a CSR committee, then one of their tasks can be setting up an office allotment (this can be as little as one pot of herbs!).
When the herbs or vegetables are ready to harvest, workers can enjoy the produce, knowing it has almost no food miles, and it pretty much carbon neutral.
Make your office furniture out of packaging
This really isn’t as daft as it sounds and in fact Joolz have made a whole business from it.
The furniture company send out the packaging they use for their products with instructions on it, so instead of going into the tip, the cardboard can then be used to create something beautiful yet practical for the office.
Designs so far include picture frames, chairs and lamps.
