Recently, at one of our monthly meetings, we announced that we will be integrating a recycling culture into our values as a company. In our offices, we will be cultivating green habits to contribute to caring for the environment, something extremely necessary in the times we live in.
The smallest things, like separating the waste into different bins and sending it to recycling companies, can help incredibly to reduce the pollution footprint that we leave in our home, planet Earth, with the passing of the years and industrial advances.
It’s extremely important to promote environmental responsibility in all areas of life, but since our concern is the workplace, today we want to talk a little about how important and necessary it is for companies to become aware of the damage that occurs. It causes the environment and how it can be reduced, that is, how to carry out recycling programs appropriately.
How To Change A Company’s Culture?
Certainly, changing the environmental culture of a company is something that is achieved little by little, progressively, not overnight. It takes planning, dedication, and perseverance. However, it’s not an impossible task. There are different ways to promote good environmental awareness and the habit of recycling, for the continuous improvement of the environment.
Educate Your Team
From environmental education to talks regarding the vast benefits that integrating recycling and other care for the environment have for a company, it’s necessary that the people who make up your work team are informed about this topic.
It’s much easier to take action after you become aware of a problem, so once everyone knows the serious damage we do to the planet and how we can help take care of it, they will surely be more motivated to execute the plan than to develop.
People in leadership or administrative positions should be especially involved in this process.
They must engage with the rest of the employees in improvement forums, educational workshops, and tools to communicate and teach the plan to be carried out.
The values of a company are reflected in its leaders and from there, other employees recreate what they learn.
Recycling Bins
Most of the environmental care plans for offices and companies include making recycling a habit, and for this, it’s necessary to learn how to recycle the daily waste that is produced on-site.
A great tool for this is precisely the bins since by designating different places where to deposit organic waste and inorganic waste, you can start to make this recycling technique a habit.
Recycling bins should be clearly identified, to avoid confusion, and in plain sight so that it’s easy to remember what should be deposited where. Not only must they be easily identifiable, but they must also be in the right places to do their job in the best way possible.
To find out where in your office it is best to place these bins, you can speak directly with your team and find out what they think would work best for them.
For example, in the lunch or break room, you should put organic waste bins and plastic bins. And in the copy room, you should definitely put paper bins. So you could take advantage of this system according to the spaces.
Paper Consuming Awareness
Paper is something that is present in all offices, even now, and digital is present in every aspect of our lives, we continue to print from time to time and use certain amounts of paper. Paper that, on many occasions, is wasted and not recycled. Not to mention that paper production itself does tremendous damage to the environment.
Therefore, it’s necessary that any recycling program that is designed for an office must take into account the consumption of paper that it has, and develop strategies to reduce it and recycle it appropriately.
Some of the things you can do to reduce paper consumption in your office are: to use recycled paper, print on both pages of a sheet, use it as much as possible, and try to digitize almost all communications and information in the office, so that only what is strictly and precisely necessary is printed.
Buy Recycled Products
One of the resources that are important to reuse is your company’s money. So, just as you reuse and recycle office utensils, paper, and others, it is good to buy recycled products, which not only support caring for the environment but are usually cheaper and help save the company money. As we always say, win-win, right?
Make It Fun
It’s no secret to anyone that the more entertaining a task is, the easier we can do it, so a good way to promote recycling and environmental care in your company is to find ways to make it more fun for the team. Be part of it. Not because it is something professional and work has to be something rigid and boring.
For example, they can download mobile applications that remind them how to recycle certain materials and share tips to improve environmental care habits or join recycling challenges of a certain number of days, in which they can improve their ability to recycle to the time you have fun and lean on your co-workers.
These tips will give you an idea of how you can start to build a culture of recycling in your company, and by following these steps, little by little you will begin to notice changes in how the company operates, reducing damage to the environment and increasing the conscience and group relationships through having projects in common.
Caring for the environment should be everyone’s job, companies included.
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See more articles by Andrea Corona.
