Lowering your carbon footprint can all begin with sustainable thinking.
Sustainable thinking can be considered on a variety of fronts: reduction of use or consumption or the outright elimination of something, for example.
What are the benefits to reducing our office carbon footprint?
- For companies that participate in sustainable action, there is a benefit to that organization’s brand recognition and brand health.
- Employee retention and potential for increased productivity.
- The long-term benefits of sustainability and carbon emissions mitigation can include increased biodiversity, decreased or sustained costs for natural resources due to stasis from averting impacts from climate change and improved or maintained community health, at local, regional, national and international levels.
How can my organization get started with reducing our carbon footprint?
The initial part of the battle is to think sustainably. This doesn’t mean to upend your office all at once. We’re on a journey that we want to be successful.
Once you get past the willingness to learn, you can start to think about what the most important pieces of sustainability are and how your team can reach these touchpoints inside or even outside the office.
The reason that your office should consider these touchpoints is that it’s easier to target things that your office thinks is important to the local area. This can bring less contention to the team’s position on sensitive topics. One example of amicability would be reducing water use or consumption at the office in Las Vegas or another southwestern state. This has become a major issue for most people in that region.
Once you make your baseline as to what sustainability means to your organization and marked the level of importance to each thing your team brainstormed, your team can make a plan to put it into action. Here, your team should consider the who of implementation for each piece and how your company will communicate these efforts to the team. Green education is a vital component of getting people on board. Remember, a company should involve as many people on the their team as possible throughout all these processes. Their participation is a key element to success of any program or effort.
Just to put a few ideas on your plate, companies can consider the products they buy and how recyclable they are or how they can be reused. Another measure is the level of toxicity to the environment or human health comes with purchasing a product.
A much larger task would be to consider installing a renewable energy electric generation system such as solar or wind, depending on where you are located. Something easier to access, but just as vital, is looking to use low-carbon alternatives for the products you already purchase and plan to in the future, such as food or electronics. One great way is to consider an immediate or future purchase of a battery electric vehicle or carpooling program. Companies can also consider remote workers for the purposes of carbon mitigation.
A final important point is that any carbon emissions a company chooses to offset by buying renewable energy credits or investing into forest projects for carbon storage needs to also think sustainably. It’s not possible to buy our way out of climate change. Some sacrafices, even the simplest ones, need to be made.