Since 2016, Agera Energy has been recognized as a Certified Westchester Green Business based on its efforts to reduce waste around its offices and improve energy efficiency on a daily basis. If a company has not yet become an eco-friendly operation, it can seem overwhelming to know where to start because it seems like a tall order.
However, the simple changes that this company instituted are a stellar example of how it is easier than ever before to make an office environment a green one.
How Did Agera Energy Decrease Waste and Make Its Offices More Efficient?
In an effort to encourage other companies to follow in its footsteps, Agera Energy, a leading energy provider in New York, has offered helpful details about the green changes it made to its offices. They do not require a significant investment of time or money and are made even more effective with the participation and enthusiasm of employees who share in the desire to protect the environment from excess waste. See if some of these changes are something that you could try in your own office.
- Using LED lights
- Blocking sunlight with window shades
- Providing reusable water bottles instead of plastic bottles to employees
- Installing more recycling bins
The main reason why changing to LED lights throughout your office can have such a major impact on your business’s carbon footprint is that they emit less carbon monoxide and do not have to be replaced as frequently as other light bulbs. Employees should also be told to turn off lights when a room is not in use. If this is a major problem in your office, you could try using motion-activated lights that will shut off automatically when no one is moving around in a room.
Window shades are an inexpensive way to keep direct sunlight from heating up the office during the summer. They can be pulled up in cooler seasons to help the office stay warm in the winter without having to run as much heat. Employees should be discouraged from running individual space heaters because they require excess energy and can cause a power surge.
Reusable water bottles can easily replace plastic bottles. If plastic water bottles are used, they should definitely be recycled. Cutting back on the use of unnecessary plastic in the first place is even more effective than recycling at easing the toll on the environment.
Having at least one bin for recycling in each room will make it easier for your employees to think twice before just throwing out something that could have legitimately been recycled. This should be accompanied by an education campaign to help employees realize which items that they use on a daily basis and should be recycled. Some items cannot be recycled or thrown away in the traditional sense. These sensitive or hazardous materials should be stored separately.
At the end of the day, all of these green changes are fairly convenient to implement in any office environment and are sure to make the company more eco-friendly. You do not have to revamp an entire building structure or replace all of your infrastructure in order to make your business more energy efficient. Many businesses, such as Agera Energy, also receive a boost in public opinion from taking steps to make their offices greener because the public is more environmentally conscious than ever before. It will soon be a consumer expectation that all companies keep up with this green trend.
