Quick Wins for a More Sustainable Office

There are many quick and easy ways you can reduce your environmental impact and save money.

How to get started

If the number of options below feels overwhelming, start with a simple, three-step process: 

1. Measure your footprint: Use the LSA’s Carbon Calculator to calculate your baseline energy use, waste, and emissions.
2. Focus on high-impact areas: Target the biggest sources of waste or emissions revealed by your audit to achieve the most significant results. 
3. Start small and build momentum: Implement one or two quick wins. As you see the benefits, you can expand your efforts and tackle bigger goals over time. 

Recycling/ Resource Use

• Provide glasses and mugs rather than disposable cups
• Limit use of disposable goods e.g. pens, in favour of reusable ones 
• Make it easy for staff to recycle as much as possible; paper, card, glass, plastic, aluminium, batteries, old phones
• Take away individual waste bins from desks and replace them with recycling bins 
• Compost food waste 
• Lengthen the life of toner cartridges by adjusting printer settings to draft quality – and black and white  
• Recycle used toner cartridges 
• Recycle old computer equipment by giving it to local charities or community groups 
• At Christmas, make a donation to charity rather than sending cards 
• Use environmentally friendly cleaning products 
• Give an active preference to products with minimal packaging and that are locally sourced 
• Discourage excessive ordering of stationery by installing a central ordering system 
• Use local suppliers/caterers where possible 
• Maximise savings by putting up signage reminding staff to save energy and reduce waste 
• Fix dripping taps

Paper Use

• Only print when necessary 
• Save paper costs by buying 100% recycled paper and reusing discarded paper for notes
• Default printers to print double-sided 
• Print internal documents in size 11 font and reduce the borders to 1.5cm
• Inform staff whether agendas and minutes will or won’t be available at meetings to avoid duplication of printing 
• Send internal memos electronically 
• Use ‘track changes’ to review documents rather than printing
• Cancel junk mail and unwanted publications 
• Re-use bubble wrap, boxes and padded envelopes where possible
• Collect and re-use name badges after events and meetings where possible 

Energy Use

• Minimise energy costs by ensuring that all equipment and lights are turned off (i.e. not left on standby) when not in use 
• Install movement sensors to meeting rooms. Encourage staff to switch off light switches by labelling light switches to indicate which area of the office they light. Ask security to check all lights are switched off once the building is empty 
• Encourage staff to switch off monitors when away from their desks for more than 5 – 10 minutes and to shut computers down when they leave the office. 
• Make sure everyone has a way to turn down the heating, rather than opening a window, to cool the office 
• Check that heating is not timed to come on overnight or at weekends 
• Turning the heating down by one degree saves 8% of the energy bill a year. The Environment Agency recommends 19 degrees C in the winter and 23 degrees C in the summer is comfortable for most staff
• If extra heating is needed, use oil-fuelled rather than electric fan heaters. They use 750W of energy as opposed to 3kW
• Ensure all light bulbs are energy efficient – LEDs are more efficient than halogen 
• Ensure air conditioning vents or heating units are not blocked by office furniture/boxes 
• Switch your electricity supplier to a green tariff. Many suppliers will assist in monitoring energy use and promoting reduction 

Transport use

• Save time, inconvenience and pollution by using conference calls rather than travelling to meetings where possible 
• Provide interest-free season ticket loans 
• Use cycle couriers where possible 
• Use LPG and/or carbon neutral taxi companies and encourage use of public transport whenever possible by making this easier to book through a central system 
• Encourage staff to cycle to work by installing secure bike racks, shower facilities and offering cycle mileage allowance 
• Introduce travel policies that reward car sharing