18 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Embarking on a journey towards sustainability is a commendable endeavour, and reducing one's carbon footprint is a pivotal step in that direction. In this comprehensive guide, we unveil 18 practical and impactful ways individuals and businesses can diminish their carbon footprint, contributing to a greener, healthier planet for generations to come.

What is Carbon Footprint?

A carbon footprint is an environmental measure of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is one of the most significant effects of increased greenhouse gas emissions (caused primarily by carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas).

A carbon footprint workplace reduction strategy educates everyone about climate change and promotes environmentally-friendly workplace processes and work behaviour.

 How Can Your Business Reduce Its Carbon Footprint

 Energy Efficiency

• Install energy efficient lighting (LED or other energy-saving light bulbs). Switch off lights when not in use either manually or through automatic sensors.  
• Purchase energy-saving models of office equipment such as computers, LCD monitors, printers and photocopiers.
• Better insulate the physical workplace with energy efficient windows and doors. Seal gaps in floorboards.
• Encourage everyone to switch off all of their equipment at the end of the work day. Plug desk equipment into extension leads, which make it easier to turn off everything at once.
• Manage heating and cooling systems intelligently. Turn the thermostat up or down by one or two degrees depending on the season – to reduce energy demand. Set the thermostat down by 10 to 15 degrees at night when no one is around. 
• Keep all equipment well maintained and at their highest efficiency.

 Fuel Usage

• Promote sustainable travel. Rather than drive, encourage employees to bike, walk, or take public transport.
• Help employees coordinate car sharing.
• If the workplace has a fleet of vehicles, use the most energy-efficient models possible, such as electric cars.
• Ask employees to work remotely from home occasionally or when it makes sense. Be sure security software is up-to-date on all mobile devices and office computers.
• Reassess business travel requirements and consider video conferencing instead of road or air travel. Invest in good video conferencing technology.

Third Parties

• Adopt a sustainable procurement policy such as purchasing eco-label products.

Partner with companies that have a sustainability policy as well. For example, Shred-it has made its truck fleet more environmentally-friendly through technologies that help reduce emissions and fuel consumption.

Waste Reduction

• Review your company’s packaging of products. Are items over-packaged, and can packaging be reduced?
• Only print out documents if absolutely necessary. Use the two-sided print feature. Reduce paper usage by converting as much as possible to digital.
• Put a recycling programme for cans, plastic, and glass, in place.
• Donate used office equipment to charity and non-profit organisations. Rather than recycle old and out of date computers and other electronics (which puts confidential information on hard drives at risk), talk to us about secure destruction services.

Be sure that paper recycling is a secure process that protects confidential and private information. Partner with a trustworthy document destruction company that guarantees paper is recycled once it has been securely shredded. The company should provide locked consoles so that disposing of paper is convenient and simple.

Interested in greening your office space?

Download our free guide for more tips to make your business greener and more secure.