Photo credit: Earth and hands from Shutterstock
by Chad Reid, Director of Communications for JotForm
Does your company do its part to celebrate Earth Day? If not, you’re missing not only an opportunity to help the planet, but also an opportunity to create a bonding experience for your employees by giving them a cause to rally behind.
The great thing is making a big impact doesn’t ask for much additional effort from your company or employees. Below are five ideas that could go a long way this Earth Day:
Replace paper workflows with online workflows.
Spare some trees by not printing application forms, drafts of important documents, or client contracts. Using an online form building tool that includes esignature capabilities lets you collect legally-binding signatures without printing a single sheet of paper. By moving to an online form builder, collaborative word processors like Google Docs or Microsoft 365, and not printing emails, you’d be surprised how little paper you actually need in your office. Our printer hasn’t been used in months.
Walk, ride a bike, or take the bus to work.
Yes, your car is convenient, and so is the company parking spot. But driving every day clogs up the atmosphere with all sorts of pollutants. If you work less than a mile from home, walk to work on Earth day. If you live more than a mile away, bike to work. Don’t have a bike? Enjoy the wonders of public transportation. Plus, all of the above is a fantastic way to get out and enjoy the community. At JotForm, 75 percent of our office employees either take public transit or bike to work; now it’s just part of daily routines.
Have the office go vegetarian for the day.
It’s only one day; you can manage without eating meat. Animal products have shown to cause irreparable harm to the earth resulting in ocean dead spots, drought, global warming, and thousands of miles of cleared land for livestock. As good as that burger is, it’s not doing any good for the environment. So, just for one day, encourage your office to go vegetarian. It’s easy, and it is a great way for your company to honor the planet.
Start a donation pool for an environmental charity.
There are dozens of organizations dedicating themselves to bettering the environment, and they could all use your help. Start an office pool to help support select organizations, and make it interesting by offering to match employee contributions. To keep it all organized, create a form that collects donation payments asking for the name of the employee, which organization they’d like to donate to, and the donation amount. You can centrally administer funds to the organization of their choosing along with company contributions.
End the day early.
Earth Day happens to fall on a Friday this year. This makes it the perfect opportunity to end the work day an hour or two early. Your employees will appreciate the early start to the weekend, and nature will appreciate the reduced energy of an office full of employees turning off their lights and computers early.
These are just a few of the ways your company can do its part this Earth Day – or every day, for that matter. It doesn’t take a ton of extra effort to make a big impact.
Do you have any tips for celebrating Earth Day? Let us know!
Chad Reid is a career marketer and currently Director of Communications forJotForm, a popular online form builder. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes for various tech and business publications.
