Five ways to create an eco-friendly office

By implementing simple, eco-friendly measures, your office can reduce its carbon footprint and become more sustainable. 

As pressure increases on organisations to focus on sustainability, one way today’s businesses can become more sustainable is by creating an eco- friendly office. 

A business’ activities revolve around its offices – by enacting simple changes at the core, an organisation can establish a more eco-friendly office in the long run. However, as the modern workplace continues to evolve, knowing where to start can be a challenging and daunting task.

At Kyocera, we’re here to help. We already know that the benefits of focusing on sustainable business practices are numerous, which is why we’ve summarised five simple ways you can create an eco-friendly office.

By switching to long-life, eco-friendly devices, using software to digitise workflows and reduce paper waste, and encouraging recycling in the office, your office will be able to look towards a greener future.

Eco-friendly devices for sustainable success

If you’re struggling to figure out where to begin, your office’s electrical devices are a good place to get started. Offices depend on important digital tools such as computers, printers, and copiers. While these devices are essential to conduct successful business operations, you can reduce your carbon footprint by switching to eco-friendly versions of these tools when the time comes to replace them.

By swapping your devices for models with a lower energy consumption, you can reduce your office’s carbon footprint and even save money in the long run. One example of reduced energy consumption in printing would be Kyocera’s ECOSYS range. These printers are equipped with toner that fuses onto the page, avoiding the energy-consuming process of heating up toner to high temperatures. With these devices, your office can cut its energy usage in half and reduce its carbon footprint significantly.

In addition, employees can use a printer’s eco-print mode when printing documents to ensure that this essential task is carried out in the most sustainable way possible. 

Sustainable, long-life devices

Investing in devices with a guaranteed, long lifespan is another simple way your office can become more eco-friendly. Durable electronic devices that last for years will help your organisation minimise its technological waste, as well as saving you money in the long run by reducing device turnover. 

The World Economic Forum has estimated that fifty million tons of electric waste is produced each year. Of this waste, a mere eighth is recycled. By choosing long-life, robust devices, your office can become more eco-friendly and help to reduce the amount of waste we generate as a planet. 

As well as consuming less energy, Kyocera’s ECOSYS range is also durable and guaranteed to stand the test of time. The amorphous silicon drums used in these devices have double the lifespan of conventional drums, which extends the device’s longevity significantly. Your office will also contribute to the recycling of electronic waste, as 30% of the plastics that are used to make Kyocera’s products are recycled. 

Recycling in the office

If your office is dedicated to becoming more eco-friendly, implementing a recycling program can take you closer to this goal. A simple way to begin would be by recycling printing consumables such as paper and toner containers.

By setting up wastepaper baskets around the office and educating employees on how to use them, non-confidential paper documents that have been printed can be recycled once they are no longer useful. The use of paper documents is essential in a wide variety of sectors, such as legal and education, so in areas where workflows depend on physical documents, offices can still play their part and become more eco-friendly by recycling these materials.

Offices can also go the extra mile by recycling their used toner containers. With Kyocera’s help, this has never been easier. Our Toner Take-Back Service makes the process hassle and cost-free, as we organise the recycling box orders and ensure your containers are turned into items such as benches and stationary. 

Reducing paper waste with software

Another simple way to become more eco-friendly would be by reducing the paper waste you generate. To do so, you can go right to the source with software that digitises workflows and eliminates unnecessary prints. 

With Kyocera Cloud Print and Scan, you can assign group print policies and quotas. This way, you can decide from the very beginning how much your office plans on printing during a set period and stick to your targets. Our software will also allow you to digitise workflows by scanning important documents and sharing these via the cloud, removing the need to print physical documents to be able to share them.

Implementing “Follow-Me” software will also allow your office to reduce its paper waste. These systems, which are enabled in programs such as Kyocera Net Manager, prevent print jobs from being released until the user who requested the print has authenticated themselves at the device itself. This software prevents accidental print jobs from being fulfilled, thus reducing paper waste that can easily be avoided.

Small changes you can make to create an eco-friendly office

While investing in durable devices, recycling programs, and smart software
is an efficient way to boost your office’s sustainability in the long-term, you
can also make small changes that will have an impact on your day-to-day
emissions. 

Measures such as ensuring all lights, air conditioning units, and electronics are switched off at the end of the day will have a significant impact on your office’s energy bills. In addition, employees can carpool to the office and reduce the number of cars on the road and thus the emissions incurred when commuting. Your office can also encourage staff to print double sided, which will reduce the amount of paper used in the office’s regular workflows. 

Every little helps – we can all play our part in reducing our environmental
impact by making small, simple changes in our daily activities. 

Eco-friendly offices and sustainable business

By implementing our five steps, your office can become more eco-friendly
and usher in a new era of sustainable business. Organisations that make
the effort to go green today will see their future energy bills and carbon emissions plummet and will also contribute towards the global goal of reducing our environmental footprint. Together, we can all make a difference.