Reuse, reuse, reuse
There are also some materials that you should consider providing for your employees in order to curb the amount of plastic waste in your office. If possible, issue each team member with one or more of the following: a reusable water bottle, a reusable and portable coffee cup and a multi-function metal spork (like this one). If you are providing your team with water bottles, it is a good idea to also provide unlimited filtered water – depending on the size of your team, this can be as simple as placing one or two communal water filter jugs in the office refrigerator.
Providing these reusable materials may seem like a big investment initially, but it should pay off over time as it becomes less and less necessary to order the items’ non-sustainable counterparts. Plus, this initiative has the added benefits of raising your team’s morale and – if you purchase branded materials – boosting awareness of your brand.
Support is key
Make sure that your employees are part of your sustainability conversation and encourage them to lead their own initiatives. Offer a monthly prize to the employee who generates the least plastic waste or stage a pitching competition for green events and initiatives. Ensure that you also keep the environment in mind when organising these prizes – it seems contradictory to give a plastic gift voucher or a plastic-wrapped gift basket to the winner of a sustainability competition. If you are going to give your employees a physical item as a prize, ensure that it is packaged in recyclable materials and that it will last for a long time. Your prizes don’t have to break the bank to be meaningful, either. For example, you could offer a half-day of annual leave as a reward for the winner to use at their own discretion. Efforts like this don’t just keep your team members inspired – it also spreads out the workload more evenly and ultimately leads to more impactful and effective change in your office’s sustainability.
Ditch the packaged lunch
The on-the-go lifestyle of an office worker generates a huge amount of plastic waste every day. If your office building doesn’t have a canteen, try to encourage your employees to bring their own lunches to work in reusable containers. You could organise a weekly or monthly potluck for the team or host a meal-planning workshop to help them hone their batch-cooking skills. If you’re able, you could also buy healthy office snacks in bulk and leave them out for your team to help cut down on packaging from crisps and biscuits. Your team will be happier, healthier and more environmentally friendly as a result.
