Don’t leave sustainability in the workplace down to your employer, be an office hero and consider implementing some of these small changes yourself: 

–       Go paper free: consider if a document needs to be printed. Add a sentence to emails ‘does this email need to be printed?’, add a note to your white board asking your colleagues to consider the environment before hitting the print button. There are many ways to electronically sign documents nowadays and there are many security benefits to storing documents digitally.

–       Use public transport: commuting to work on public transport can give you a buffer at the end of the working day, some extra time to prepare as you head into work or time to wind down on your way home.

–       Car share: where public transport isn’t an option car sharing with a colleague, even part of the way, will reduce your costs and carbon footprint, make the journey feel quicker and give you a chance to catch up with your colleague. 

–       Walk, run or cycle: many employers recognise the wellbeing benefits of walk or cycle to work schemes, speak to your boss about the potential of this in your team. 

–       Office recycling: ink cartridges, shredded paper, cardboard, plastic, all of these can be recycled and if not done so by your local authority, specialist companies can come into your workplace and collect these. Alternatively why not consider an office rota and encourage your colleagues to help by taking a little bit home each week. Aswell as your office staples, consider setting up a recycling area in your office kitchen too to help make it easier to recycle any lunch packaging.

–       Electric usage: electronics left in standby mode still consume electric, make sure all electric equipment including lights are switched off at the end of each day.

–       Reusable bag stash: keeping a number of reusable bags in a handy place in your office comes in handy for any unexpected lunch or after work shopping. 

–      Pre-loved donation station: a designated area in your workplace for people to leave books, games, picture frames and similar items that others may like.