The End to a Wasteful Workplace

With the current worldwide focus on sustainability and an ever-increasing concern over climate change, it is certainly no surprise to anyone how important responsible waste management is for our collective future. The future health of our world depends on the decisions we make today.

By now we’re all aware of how we can better manage waste and look after the environment in our own homes – doing things like sorting and recycling our household rubbish, composting for the garden, reducing our dependence on packaging and saving water for instance. We understand how to take personal responsibly for our environmental impact in the home, but what about at work? How environmentally effective are your workplace practices and personal behaviours in the office? After all, our environmental footprint doesn’t just stop when we leave home. In fact, our offices and workplaces represent an even greater opportunity – as well as a greater challenge – to make a real difference.

Don’t be the office that carefully segregated waste and recycling into separate bins, only to have their waste provider empty all bins into one skip for landfill. Don’t be that company! Talk to your cleaning and waste provider and implement a Waste Management Plan. You may be surprised at what you can achieve. As well as three-stream (landfill, paper and mixed recycling) and four-stream (plus organics) services, your provider may offer specialist disposal for hard-to-handle items with potentially serious environmental consequences, like sanitary, batteries, printers, laptops, grease traps, nappies or sharps. Your Waste Management Plan can schedule their collection frequency to suit the size of your business, ensuring these problematic items are disposed of professionally in as safe and as environmentally friendly a way as possible.

You can also improve your environmental footprint by talking to your cleaning provider, to ensure they follow best-practice in their cleaning services. Ask whether they use environmentally friendly equipment and products. For example, Ozone-infused E-water is a chemical-free cleaning agent that can be used for a great result with zero environmental impact.

• Lighting – if your office is like most, it’s lit up so much it could make a Christmas tree blush. Do you need all those lights on? And do you need them on all the time? Consider:

    - Turning lights off when not using a room

    - Replacing globes with CFL or LED globes to slash power consumption and prolong lifespan.

    - Installing motion sensors to turn lights off automatically.

• Replace single-use items, like straws, cups or plates, with reusable ones in kitchens and breakout rooms.
• Install an on-site specialist Bokashi or Orca compositing bin, then use this compost to enrich your grounds and gardens.
• Install a waste compactor to reduce landfill volume.
• Conduct meetings electronically through Skype, rather than travelling for face-to-face.
• Create a rewards program to leverage and incentivise the passion and creativity of your staff.
• Get behind sustainability events, such as Business Clean Up Day or the Zero Waste Challenge, sharing your achievements on social media to inspire others while improving your brand credibility as champions for the environment.
• Is your trash someone else’s treasure? Take a fresh look at what you’re throwing away and see where you can reuse it in your business or donate it for re-use.

Our personal behaviours in the workplace have a huge cumulative effect on the environment. ISS has a Zero Waste Challenge which asks staff to reduce or eliminate their waste for an entire day, week or longer! The idea is to consider your ‘Working Journey’ from travelling to work through to leaving it and to make conscious decisions about your waste creation along the way. The below diagram gives some tips – why not do this in your office? Your efforts in the workplace can help make a real difference.

As a recognised leader in cleaning and waste management, ISS believes sustainability is of paramount importance, and are therefore proud major sponsors of Business Clean Up Australia Day 2020. Having provided large-scale waste management services to corporate offices, schools, universities, hospitals, as well as many other businesses, ISS has a rich understanding of how to provide waste management services across a diverse range of workplaces. Every year, ISS takes part in the Zero Waste Challenge. With a proud history in waste management and innovation, ISS is pleased to share some tips on how to step up your workplace sustainability game.