Turn your office into a green office.

Want to become a more sustainable office? Here are some tips on how embracing natural light, paperless meetings, and working from home can help your company save money and energy.

1. Start a Sustainability Team for your office. A sustainability team can both raise awareness and accomplish more than any one employee on their own. Projects for the team could include starting or enabling a more successful recycling program, and helping to inform purchasing decisions on energy-efficient appliances and green cleaning supplies. Employees engaging one another is more effective than memos from the top.
2. Create monthly green challenges. Monthly team challenges can be a fun way of combining competition and going green, McCrea said. For example, you can challenge the office to go a month with no plastic eating utensils, and reward those who stick with it by offering small prizes, such as coffee gift cards or snacks.Make the switch to renewable energy.
3. Turn off electronics, lighting, and heat every evening. Instate a strict everything-off-at-night rule. Upon leaving the office, all of your equipment must be switched off at the main plug. If someone forgets, create a funny punishment - like granola bars for the office, or be the person to recycle the batteries that week, or they have to put some money in a Green Jar which gets donated to an environmental fund.
4. Opt for better office products. There may not be room in your budget to buy exclusively sustainable products, but you can focus on certain areas that have a huge overall impact, such as more efficient electronics. Purchasing greener electronics will ultimately avoid the disposal of 124 metric tons of hazardous waste.
5. Embrace renewable energy. Green power sources, including solar and wind energy, are more accessible than ever, with options including rooftop solar installations and large-scale wind farms. Organizations of any size can make this switch. If your business is located in a deregulated electricity state, one easy way to make your office greener is to shop for your electricity supplier and choose a green energy plan. Almost every electricity supplier offers green energy plans that are generated by renewable energy sources, primarily wind and solar, Bedrich said. These green electricity plans are priced very competitively compared to traditional electricity plans powered by coal or natural gas, she added.
6. Lay off the thermostat. Workplaces are often over-air conditioned in the summer months. Employees can inquire about increasing the set point, to both allow for a more comfortable workspace, and to reduce energy use. One large retail store lessened its impact on the environment by setting the AC to kick on at 75 degrees, instead of 74, according to Bridget Venne, energy and sustainability strategic advisor for Ecova. The store now consumes 30,000 fewer kilowatts, and saves $3,100 every year. "Smaller businesses might not notice such a dramatic change, but little adjustments done with intention build positive habits that make a difference over time," Venne said.
7. Go paperless. The greenest paper is no paper at all, said Vince Digneo, sustainability strategist at Adobe. Corrections, revisions, and updates on printed documents contribute to 90% of all office waste in the US, and remaining 10% is taking up space in storage facilities, he said. "Keep things digital whenever possible," Digneo said. "It's as easy as keeping digital files on on your computers and mobile devices, not file cabinets. Also, get in the habit of reviewing digital documents on-screen, rather than printing them out."According to a 2014 study conducted by Catalog Spree and PaperKarma, if the US alone cuts its office paper use by just 10% by moving to digital, it would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.45 million metric tons--the equivalent to taking 280,000 cars off the road for an entire year, Digneo said.Other ways to go paperless include printing less in general, and asking vendors to offer e-statements and invoices instead of paper statements. Setting up automated payments further reduces paperwork by eliminating the need for printed checks, said tech blogger Amy McGarity of German Pearls.
8. Bring a desk plant. If you're able, bring in a desk plan to improve indoor air quality and bring some nature into the office environment, Osterwood said.
9. Maximize natural light. The World Green Building Council reports that employees working near sunlit windows have a 15% higher production rate. "Natural light sets the body's circadian rhythms, which control awakening, falling asleep, synthesizing vitamin D and digestion," said Jennifer Walton, principal of H. Hendy Associates. "Indoor light, however, is a major disruptor. If possible, move workstations to within 25 feet of peripheral walls with windows." Relying more on natural light when possible also saves energy, Digneo said. "Also consider installing a smart power strip at every workstation, replacing all lighting fixtures with LEDs, as well as incorporating sensors and timers for office lighting," he added. "You'll reduce energy consumption and costs on things like utility bills."
10. If wondering how to save on heating and cooling costs in your office, install a programmable thermostat, or take advantage of using one if it’s already present. Used properly, it can save up to $150 a year in energy costs.
11. Plug appliances and electronics into power strips. Turn off these “central hubs” when devices aren’t in use to prevent phantom energy drain, which accounts for about one-quarter of your electricity bill.
12. Replace regular lightbulbs with energy-efficient CFLs, which use 75% less energy and last 6 to 10 times longer.
13. Seal around doors and windows to stop air leaks. A $2 tube of caulk could cut your energy waste by 10%-20%
14. Work to reduce your dependence on single-use plastic and rely more on reusable containers, bottles, and metal straws. This could help save you money, too — if you were to drink the recommended 8 glasses of water a day from single-use plastic bottles for one year, it would cost more than 3,500 times more than drinking the same amount of tap water.
15. Compost food scraps to reduce your landfill contribution by 22%. In the U.S. alone, production and disposal of food waste is equivalent to 37 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions. It can be difficult, however, to know how to compost in an apartment. If you have space outdoors, use a compost tumbler or a worm bin. If your city offers a food scrap drop-off site, you can use a tabletop composter.
16. Join or start a community garden in your area. In return for contributing to upkeep, you’ll get a supply of fresh, safe produce. You can take only what you need as you need it to prevent food waste.
17. Wash 4 out of 5 loads of laundry with cold water — in one year, the carbon-dioxide emissions reduction would be equivalent to planting over 1/3 of an acre of forest.
18. Wash only full loads of laundry to save up to 3,400 gallons of water a year.
19. Stop and think before you throw those old electronics, batteries and light bulbs in the trash. Recycling is a better option. Fix this issue with two programs - invest in rechargable batteries and make a battery charging station at your work AND set up a program for dontating/recycling/properly disposing of old batteries. In some states its illegal to leave them on the curb.