Does your office have a green team? Green teams are fairly common in the workplace, and they handle all sorts of eco-friendly initiatives in the office.
Green teams are typically made up of volunteers from different departments who are interested in helping their organization operate more sustainably.
Initiatives can focus on both corporate sustainability and helping individuals in the organization live a more eco-friendly life.
If your workplace doesn't have a green team, then this is the blog post for you. I'm going to help you set up a green team and give you a list of projects you can start with.
1. chat with your boss:
You'll need to chat with your boss or supervisor about wanting to start a green team.
If your boss needs a bit of convincing show them that including a green team will help the company meet their own sustainability goals. It will also help the company save money, engage employees, and help with branding. After all, what company doesn't want to be known as being eco-friendly?
2. send out the emails!
Once you've got the go-ahead it's time to round up the recruits. Send out an email letting everyone know there's going to be a new green team and ask people who are interested in participating to come to your first meeting.
You don't want everyone from the green team to be from the same department so make sure that you're inviting all of the departments to come.
3. host the first meeting:
Lunch meetings are typically the best so invite everyone to meet in an available conference room and you can talk about areas where you think the office or individuals can improve in being more eco-friendly.
After you've brainstormed a bit pick a few things that you think can easily be accomplished.
I've rounded up a few ideas that the green team can tackle below!
bike to work week:
It's bike to work week here in Canada and we're running a little contest among our employees!
Get your company to participate in bike to work week. Make sure to publicize the week among the office. To incentivize the week, even more, pick a prize and have employees compete to win!
recycle right!
Is your office recycling right? Do a waste audit and show the results to people in your office. Print out pictures of the most common items that belong in the recycle bin, trash, and compost and tap them above the bin!
This way when people are about to throw something away they can make sure it's going into the right bin.
save energy:
Make sure people turn their computers off at the end of the night!
ditch disposables:
If your office kitchen doesn't already stock a pile of mugs and plates, make sure to get those added!
These are just a few things you can do to help your office become a bit more eco-friendly, but there are so many that you could kick off. You could even go for larger changes like switching to solar energy and getting an industrial compost machine!
