Burt's Business Blog

As the world gets more serious about the environment due to increasing evidence of man-made climate change, it is only natural that many people wish to take the initiative and implement policies at their workplace that encourage sustainable business practices. Having an eco-friendly workplace can also attract more employees who support these values in their places of work. Luckily some of these ways are quite easy for you to organise and require little more than some initial set up work before they can sustain themselves. 

Document Destruction

If you are a business that deals with the private information of your customers, then there are legal requirements for you to destroy these details after they have fulfilled their purpose. While you can do this process in your office, by using a document destruction service you can be assured of the swift, reliable service that also offers a sustainable method of disposal. Most document destruction companies offer recycling services for destroyed documents, and by contracting this work outside your office to professionals, you leave zero chance of allegations of corruption or internal conflict of interests. When you organise your document destruction, you are given containers that are sealed and cannot be opened by anyone, meaning that once the documents are marked for destruction, there is no way to get them back, even when they are still awaiting collection.

Office Compost

Many offices have their own kitchenette where employees organise their meals during the day, but very few take into consideration the amount of food waste that goes through the company over time. Fruit, vegetables, coffee grinds, eggs and almost every bit of natural food waste can be decomposed through composting, and the compost that is created is then very useful for growing new plants. Creating an office garden on the roof of your building or in an allocated plot out the ground floor can be a great way to recycle food scraps and create fresh, healthy food for the whole office to enjoy. Composting is a great, natural way to recycle what would otherwise be put into landfills.

Install Greywater Systems

Greywater is the term for water that has been used in either the sink or the showers/baths of your building but has not been used for waste purposes (i.e. in a toilet). This water is perfectly usable for tasks that do not need totally sterile water, for example, by recycling this greywater you can use it for flushing the toilet or in the garden. A greywater system is a great way to save on your water bill while also helping the environment. To maximise this effort, you can also install shower and tap heads that are built to conserve water usage, something very useful in a country that has as many droughts as Australia.