The eco friendly movement is global and ever evolving. Everyday there are new technologies, products, and lifestyles choices to help preserve our environment, not destroy it. After all, we only get one Earth and should treat it well. Being green is moving from household items and ideas to the business world. Green and eco friendly businesses and office spaces are popping up quickly for example, BCNewt Coworking Space and Green Spaces.
BCNewt Coworking Space created a multipurpose center with ecological and transgressive spirit, where space reflects and represents the philosophy of coworking. We also renovated the electrical system, which happened to be green consumer, and for which unique pieces from coupling nozzles and bulbs created. Green Spaces has installed solar panels to take advantage of clean energy. These are some radical methods that seem difficult to do. Is it difficult to green a world of paperwork? There are many very simple ways to help you workspace go green. Here are 5 tips to create greener coworking space.
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Separate Your Garbage!
This step is very simple. Gather three bins. Label on “paper”, another, “plastic” and the third “organic.” By separating your garbage it can be easily taken to recycling facilities and organic matter can be composted. This way you avoid sending unnecessary items to the dump! At first it can be confusing and cumbersome (we watch coworkers stare at bins for a few minutes trying to figure them out), but it soon becomes an unconscious effort.
- Use Recycled Printer Paper
Offices can go through thousands of pages of printer paper in a single day, which means hundreds of trees. Using recycled paper is another very easy step. It is sold at most office supply stores and by using it one is making an effort to reduce the amount of trees being used to make paper. If recycled paper is not available, at least use the backside of used or unwanted paper that has already been printed on.
- Recycle Ink Cartridges
In order to print things on those thousands of pieces of paper, you need a lot of ink. Ink cartridges are made of a heavy plastic, which does not break down naturally. Because they don’t break down, they simply pile up in garbage dumps and leak chemicals or are picked up by animals. Brother Printing has a cartridge-recycling program that is very easy to use. Just send in the empty and used cartridges to Brother Printng (for free) in order to be recycled and reused. By recycling the cartridges in your working space,, you are reducing the amount created then discarded at landfills.
- Repurpose Old Items to Make Something New
Do you have a broken table? Or an old outdated chair? Use the materials to create something new. Give it a new purpose: repurpose it! For example, during BCNewt’s construction, coworking in Barcelona, there were a lot of leftover wooden pallets. Instead of throwing them away we turned them into original, and very cool if I should say so myself, lighting fixtures (pictured above) in our coworking space. Every pallet had at minimum 70 cloves which required a lot of hard work to clean up and cut it because the tough wood was used for heavy transporting heavy items. This was a more expensive option than just running to the nearest superstore and buying manufactured lighting, but the end result was something that we are proud of. Inexpensive options for repurposing can easily be found at local secondhand stores.
- Unplug the Unused
This is perhaps the simplest way to make you space more eco friendly, unplug your unused electronics. Most chargers, lights, power strips, coffee makers and printers draw power even when they aren’t powered on. Simply unplug the devices or use power strip with a power button for items that you are not using or when you leave for the day to reduce your energy usage and hopefully your electric bill!
Taking steps towards being eco friendly is easy and simple! With the amount of workspaces in the world, taking these simple steps could help reduce waste by so much. Even the little things count. Strive to be green!