How to be sustainable in the office
Being sustainable is not a passing fad. Recycling, saving energy and consuming in a responsible way are practices that we must adopt if we want to preserve the planet and slow down climate change.
Companies play an essential role in this situation. Multinationals, SMEs and startups concentrate a large part of energy and resource consumption, so it is vitally important that they prioritize environmental management by applying sustainable policies.
Some measures to be sustainable in the office
To become a sustainable office and reduce the environmental impact generated by the activity of our company we can take several measures:
To reduce the use of paper: Nowadays we are lucky enough to be able to work with computers and digitally store the documents we produce. The possibility of working in the cloud and communicating through e-mail, or even by instant messaging, has been a revolution for companies. To be sustainable in the office, you must print only those documents that you really need, and in any case, you should use recycled paper.
To recycle: Companies generate many types of waste, both organic and inorganic: cardboard, toner, plastic bottles, packaging or food waste, among many others. Ideally, the sustainable office should have an area where employees could get rid of all this waste and classify it according to its nature. Creating good recycling habits is key to stop the environmental damage.
To consume less energy: It seems incredible the amount of energy that a company can consume, among elevators, fluorescent lighting, appliances and constantly plugged devices ─such as computers, monitors or smartphone battery chargers. Nor should we forget the annual expense of air conditioning of a space as an office. To this respect, we can adopt several measures to transform our workspace in a sustainable office: to make the most of natural light, turn off computers and monitors when we are not working or go up the stairs if we are not in a very high floor are some of the actions that we can apply. It is also necessary to coherently regulate the heating thermostat throughout the year; a good climate control means offering a comfort temperature to all employees.
Colonial leads the sustainable office market. Its buildings stand out for automatically regulate lighting and air conditioning, thus guaranteeing an efficient energy consumption through the management software Smart Building System. At the forefront of the sustainable offices stand out those that Colonial has projected in the Discovery Building, located at Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid. It is the first newly-designed building within the M-30 area to obtain the LEED Platinum certification. The Discovery Building reduces energy consumption between 30% and 50% as compared to traditional buildings. It is also a building that reduces the greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, which helps to slow down climate change.
Sustainable offices are the offices of the future: encourage yourself to transform yours.
