An eco-friendly workplace is no longer a topic left to boardroom discussions and HR meets. Prompt actions are initiated by companies to design eco-friendly workplaces, and convenient workplace design concepts are implemented with vibrant color schemes to boost employee morale and engagement at work.
This phenomenal change can be attributed to the fact that organisations are now realizing that an average employee spends close to 9-hours of their day at work and hence, the workplace culture and design concept should perk up productivity, enthuse and excite them to be at work every single day.
According to study findings revealed by an environmental economist Professor Magali Delmas at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and UCLA Anderson School of Management, in collaboration with Sanja Pekovic from France’s University Paris-Dauphine reveals the perks of green practice adoptions in a workplace.
The ‘go green’ practice helps HR professionals to perk up employee morale, motivates them to work harder, receive more training and benefit from better interpersonal relationship, and results in increased productivity at work.
See also : 4 Ways Volunteering Can Enhance Teamwork At The Workplace
The concept of giving back to the community, planet and environment around derives immense satisfaction and pride for employees as they scale up the ladder of success. Hence, HR should implement some green values and practices for employees to volunteer in the initiatives and become a part of the “global giving” community with an aptitude to serve:
Do away with paper and get in sync with technology advancement as digital era embarks. Make most of digital, get trained and train your workforce to choose digital over print, at all times unless absolutely necessary to get documents printed on paper. Send emails rather than drafting letters on paper, save your important files on drives instead of file cabinets, review documents on screen rather than printing them out.
2. Save on the Commuting Time
Travel delays owing to traffic congestion, make an average American spend nearly 7-billion extra hours in the car i.e 42 hours per rush-hour commuter and waste around 3-billion gallons of fuel. This waste of time, and energy could be avoided through fuel-efficient cars for daily commute or by biking, and walking your way after work.
3. Save Energy, Get Work Done
This is probably one of the simplest things to do and every HR can directly implement the actions immediately after reading this article. Turn on the energy-savings settings and shutdown systems immediately after working hours, these are the best ways to save energy at work. For other peripherals like printers and scanners, plugin the cables and connect only when needed. Also, do not forget to turn off the room’s lamps before leaving.
4. Green Materials Reuse
Only print when necessary and choose for recycled paper to print as it is environmental friendly. Also other things like recycled pens, pencils, envelopes and cartridges are now widely available and pretty affordable too.
5. Lunch time
People at work commonly take delivery order for lunches and often end up with miniature amount of packaging trash. Try to order collectively and use the reusable plates, spoons, forks and glasses at the office. Instead of taking a delivery order, bring the lunch in a reusable container such that it minimizes waste and is good for your health as well.
6. Get others to Volunteer on the Act
More actions implemented for societal development and the planet will survive longer. Share the ‘go green’ ideas with colleagues and leaders such that the office will do the same implementation and motivation to save the planet.
It is a waste of time to implement the eco-friendly environment at the workplace without any support from either employers or employees. Therefore, an intensive communication with employees is necessary to boost awareness before implementing and initiating actions.
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