Celebrate Earth Day by Reducing Your Office’s Carbon Footprint

As Earth Day approaches and “going green” is on everybody’s mind, now might be a good time to think about just how sustainable your office is and even consider finding ways to reduce its carbon footprint. Whether you want to go all out and revamp the entire office to be eco-friendly or whether you just want to make a few simple environmentally-conscious changes, the Earth will thank you in the long run.

DIRTT uses sustainably-source glass, wood and other materials. (Photo Credit: DIRTT)

Eco-Friendly Office OverhaulIf you have a larger budget to spend on making your office green, you could always start from the ground up, literally. Choose environmentally-conscious building companies and manufacturers, such as DIRTT, which makes green walls, flooring and other sustainable materials.You may want to also think about using green power. The EPA recommends looking into renewable energy like wind power, solar power, geothermal and biomass. It’s generally pretty simple to purchase green power and can make a huge impact in decreasing carbon emissions.On that note, the EPA also recommends that businesses create and use greenhouse gas inventories. These inventories contain a list of emission sources and associated emissions, and are a great way to measure and manage your office’s carbon footprint. If your office uses a lot of vehicles, electricity or heating and cooling, you may want to check it out.Sustainable Baby StepsLet’s face it: most offices don’t really have the resources to do an entire overhaul. Fortunately, there are ways your office can reduce carbon emissions without breaking the bank. Small, simple steps can be pretty effective in creating a more sustainable workplace.The EPA suggests several easy ways to make an office greener. The most well-known is the tried-and-true “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” method. Offices can reduce by using less paper and electricity, reuse by purchasing items made with recycled content or “upcycling” old furniture and they can reduce waste by recycling paper, plastic and glass.

Business Insider also has some recommendations for a few easy ways your office can be more sustainable. It suggests choosing eco-friendly office supplies, like ink, toner and light bulbs, turning off or even unplugging equipment at night and going digital to reduce paper usage.