Investing in Green

GREENER WORKING TAKEN TO THE NEXT LEVEL

It’s said that if you put a frog in boiling water it will immediately jump out, but if you put the frog in cold water and heat it up slowly, it will boil alive. In reality, the frog will jump out as soon as it gets uncomfortable; it appears frogs have more common sense than us.

Concerns about the environment are increasingly working their way into everyday conversations and newspaper headlines, however pointed questions about whether man-made climate change is real might invite no more than a sage nod and subjects like a new temperature record being broken, or a catastrophe killing thousands may only evoke a furrowed brow before the business of the day proceeds. We are paying for the mistakes of previous generations and if we don’t all move to action our planet will look very different to our grandchildren and beyond, and not for the better.

The UK and Ireland are lucky and have escaped the worse climate extremes that other nations have suffered. We haven’t had raging and unpredictable monsoons, or decade-long droughts. However even in our nations we have experienced flooding; months of rain being dumped in a few hours, and previously tranquil rivers now regularly bursting their banks. Only in 2018 the UK appeared to grind to a stand-still with the arrival of unusually heavy snow, and increasing heatwaves are leading to more deaths every summer.

Most people are making personal changes; eating less meat, recycling and not wasting water are all ways in which many people are trying to make a difference. For all those looking to make a change, bringing attention to the office or warehouse can help them not just turn off one lightbulb at night, but thousands. More businesses are working to generate a positive environmental impact or mitigate the effects of irresponsible practices, often saving money in the process.

What are the easiest ways that businesses can save money and think more sustainably?

Considering working practices and cutting down on travel, either by encouraging working from home, or video conferencing rather than face to face meetings are two easy ways to have a large impact on the environment and overheads. If you drive 30 miles each day for work, working from home instead could cut your transportation-related carbon dioxide emissions by 3.2 metric tonnes each year.

Co-working is another option growing more popular with smaller businesses and start-ups; Glandore is a co-working space in Cork. Their Director, Clare Kelly says; “Co-working and flexible workspace by their very definition are green. It’s not just a sharing of ideas but of space, heat, light and other resources. Often companies and individuals believe recycling is enough, but as an organisation, we believe it’s important to take it a step further. Naturally we want to increase recycling rates, but the priority is to reduce waste entirely.”

Also to be considered is where a business sources it’s furniture, a large outlay for any office. Recycling office equipment can reduce your carbon footprint by 45% and reduce the incredible 300 tonnes of furniture that goes to landfill each day. Go Green Office Solutions was created when the founder Shane Hanley noticed the sheer volume of good quality office stock going to landfill each year. Now providing top-quality second-hand office furniture across the UK, Go Green have seen staggering demand for their services, showing that businesses want to go green, if the opportunities to do so are easy to access.

Businesses should also consider their recycling practices, the greenest paper is no paper at all, but if that’s not possible, paper is one of the easiest products to recycle. Recycling a tonne of office paper saves 4,100kWh of energy, 7,000 gallons of water and 9 barrels of oil! Harder to recycle are certain materials produced in the day to day running of some manufacturing businesses.

Stepping into this gap are specialised recycling centres and businesses in their own right. Until recently if you used HDPE waterproofing membrane in your business, you’d be sending it to landfill to join the many tonnes of it sent there every year. However, in 2017 Newton Waterproofing Solutions created a system to collect and recycle this waste, saving it from polluting the environment for the thousands of years it would take to break down. If you produce something traditionally nonrecyclable, it is well worth checking online to see if there is a new process or business that will be able to re-use or break down your waste products.

Turning off unnecessary electronics at night, as well as light and heat, can go a long way towards reducing your power consumption as well as saving money. According to the University of Cambridge, just one light left on overnight can cost £24 over the course of a year. Simply turning off four lights in your workspace, every night for a year, could save as much CO2 as would be produced by 20 car trips from London to Paris.

Figures from the Energy saving Trust show that the UK wastes around £170 million a year by leaving lights on unnecessarily, and that lighting a typical office for one night wastes enough energy to heat water for 1000 cups of your favourite hot beverage.

A simple change like turning off the lights could have a noticeable impact on a businesses bottom line. Other small changes, like setting the thermostat to kick in a degree lower, or higher for air conditioning, can make a big difference to energy consumption and your energy bill, especially if you have a large office space or warehouse. EnergyHub estimates that people save between 3-5% of energy costs for each degree you turn the office thermostat down in winter.

Green energy tariffs are also worth exploring; they work by the supplier promising to match all or some of the power you use with renewable energy. As public concern mounts about climate change, many established energy firms are offering green tariffs and some providers are only offering renewable energy. As demand is increasing, prices are steadily coming down and may not be as expensive as you think.

Glandore have already begun to make waves as the first Irish coworking company to commit to using 100 percent renewable energy across all of their Irish locations, through the installation of solar panels and smart light sensors. In addition, they have fitted each of their shared office spaces with recycling and composting facilities, as well as incorporating electric car charging ports at a handful of their properties.

Great PR is a side-effect of going green. People like to hear that a business they use is helping the environment, so when creating a green initiative at work, shout about it!

Small changes can lead to a massive impact. Think about what your business can do, whether your motives are saving money or the natural world. There’s still time to jump out of that water.