Quick and cheap office energy-saving tips

In honour of Big Energy Saving Week 2020, we share our favourite quick and affordable energy-saving hacks that you easily can implement in the office.

 

1. Unplug equipment overnight and before the weekend

Not the fridge (you won’t be popular if Lisa’s pasta goes bad), but items like coffee machines, hand-dryers and printers can be switched off when no one’s around to prevent energy being wasted on standby mode.

 

2. Befriend your laptop’s hibernation feature

Hibernation uses less power than allowing your laptop to drift into ‘Sleep’ mode when you’re away from your desk. Not sure how to locate or activate hibernation mode? Never fear – a quick Google search can help with this!

 

3. Make a round for everyone

Not only will you be popular with your teammates; you’ll be saving energy by only boiling the kettle once. It’s a win-win scenario!

 

4. Fill the dishwasher before switching it on

Get more out of the communal dishwasher by waiting until it’s full before letting it works its cleaning magic. Bonus hack: Switch it off and open the door before it reaches the drying stage to allow contents to dry naturally.

 

5. Turn down the heat

This one may cause some friction if no one in your office can ever agree on the temperature, BUT according to British Gas, reducing the temperature by as little as 1°C can save enough energy to print over 40 million sheets of A4 paper. Which brings us nicely on to our next tip…

 

6. Don’t print for the sake of it

We’ve all been guilty of sending reams of paper to print when we really don’t need to. If you need to share documents with other team members, you can do so either by sending them via email or making use of a shared drive – meaning if someone loses a document, they can just find it again in the Cloud.

Of course, there will always be occasions when printing is a must. In these instances, you can use less paper simply by reducing margins and typeface sizes, being more selective when it comes to font usage , and even using a thinner paperweight where possible.

 

7. Be a green champion!

Our final and most important tip – you can help inspire change in your workplace by appointing yourself as an energy champion and encouraging your coworkers to adopt greener methods like the one we’ve listed above. Other examples include suggesting a cycle to work scheme/car sharing, or creating a shared forum and using an incentive approach to celebrate and reward the very best suggestions!

 

Do you have any of your own energy-saving tips? Let us know on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook!