With the effects of climate change now felt worldwide, making your office environment friendly is now a necessity. After all, we all need to do our share to save the planet. But where do you start? Here are three ways:

• Streamline your office supplies and equipment.
  Simply changing many of the items you use around the office can help make your workplace eco-friendly. Start by switching to recycled paper for your printing tasks. Then instead of using brand new printer cartridges, go for remanufactured ink cartridges, which are cheaper and utilizes recycled parts. Even smaller implements can be swapped out—you can opt for ballpens made from recycled plastic instead of ones made from scratch.

  Once your bigger office equipment is due for replacement, it’s time to upgrade to a more energy-efficient unit. For example, you can replace old monitors with new, top-of-the-line Energy Star rated ones. These changes won’t just help you bring down your electricity bill—these will also help you save the earth, by reducing the amount of resources you consume.

• Rethink your physical office space.
  For starters, you should evaluate whether your current office space is the ideal size. A bigger office space would require additional energy to light up, heat, or cool. So if your space is currently too big for your company, it may be advisable to downgrade to a smaller one.

  Once you’ve found the ideal office space, check if any improvements can be made. Is your space properly insulated to guarantee energy efficiency? Can the place be modified to make the most out of natural lighting? Is the thermostat in the right range? How about the use of solar energy in your facility—can panels be installed? As these show, there are many potential ways to make your office more environment friendly.

• Enact earth-friendly policies in your office—and beyond.

This may be the hardest part of all, as you’d need to have the participation of your employees. And getting all of them to join a program may take some work.

For example, you may want to set up carpool groups for everyone in the office, instead of each person bringing in his/her own vehicle to work every day. Other than needing to convince people to join the program, you’ll also have to set up groups, coordinate the schedules of those who joined, etc. You can also encourage your employees to bike to the office instead. Just make sure that there’s a shower room plus secure bicycle parking in your building.
And finally, you can sign up for tax rebates or get other benefits when you make your office eco-friendly. These include property tax credits for buildings with renewable energy systems in Maryland and zoning exemptions for structures with those systems in Los Angeles.

As these three ways show, there are so many things that you can do to help save the Earth. With every eco-friendly office built, we’re taking one step closer to ensuring a bright future for our children on this planet.