As the European Commission’s Energy Efficiency Directive deadline of 2020 creeps closer, lots of companies will be setting themselves New Year’s resolutions to go green in 2017. A huge plus to being an environmentally-friendly business is that saving the environment saves you money too. Whether it’s reducing the amount of energy you use or adopting a zero waste to landfill policy, you save money. Here are five suggestions to help your company go green in 2017:
1. Recycling in the office
Most offices have recycling bins these days but they’re often not used as much as they could be. One of the reasons for this is staff having very handy little bins under their desks. It may not make you popular but getting rid of them is a great way to improve your office’s recycling habits. Replace them with plenty of well labelled, colour coded recycling bins and as few general waste bins as you can get away with.
2. Recycling in the workshop/warehouse
Packaging of various types is a large source of waste in warehousing, retail and manufacturing. Fortunately, commercial waste management companies can take it away for recycling. For extra savings, it is worth seeing how much of the packaging could be reused. Some manufacturing waste material has strict guidelines as to how it has to be disposed of but others, like metal and some plastics, are actually valuable, so it is worth investigating ways to pass these materials on.
3. Using less paper
Modern technology, such as tablets and other handheld devices, mean there is less need to print out documents. Setting all the printers to print double-sided by default is another good way to reduce how much paper is used, as is investing in a printing ‘FollowMe’ system, where people need to put a code into the printer itself before the printed documents will come out. This saves paper, as up to 30% of print jobs sent to the printer are never collected.
4. Taking control of your energy consumption
A large percentage of a company’s energy consumption is down to heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting. Having better controls to ensure energy isn’t being wasted where it isn’t needed can make a huge difference. Fitting motion sensors to control your lighting will make sure it isn’t on when no-one is present. Different areas of a business have different heating or cooling requirements due to the size of rooms, types of equipment being used and the need for temperature and/or humidity control. If you can’t control the temperature in different areas independently then great deal of energy is likely being wasted.
5. Sending Zero Waste to Landfill
Not all waste can be recycled and some energy will inevitably be wasted somewhere along the line, so it is good to know that by using a waste management company which uses waste to generate electricity you are helping to balance this out. Burning non-recyclable waste produces super-heated steam to drive turbines and create energy. The ash produced is then recycled as aggregate, so nothing goes to landfill.
By making small changes and using a waste management company that can help with your recycling and burn the non-recyclables to generate energy, your business can have a greener 2017. At Rabbit, we process all collected waste to remove as much recyclable material as possible and use the rest to generate energy.
Find out how Rabbit Group can help you dispose of waste in an environmentally friendly way – contact us on 01903 762020 or info@rabbitgroup.co.uk
