How green is your office? New guide encourages local organisations to ‘go green’
A new guide is to be published which aims to encourage voluntary and community organisations across England to become more environmentally friendly by following 12 simple steps to ‘greening’ their offices. ‘Changing the Way You Work’, offers practical advice for organisations of all sizes to ensure that they are doing their bit in the fight against global climate change.
The guide is part of the ongoing Every Action Counts programme which is aimed at providing support, resources and information for national and local voluntary and community organisations on how to protect and improve the environment.
Extreme weather conditions, as experienced across the UK in recent months, are likely to become more commonplace as the temperature in the UK rises year on year, with average annual temperatures expected to rise by up to 5°C over the next 100 years. It is now strongly believed by the scientific community that it is our actions are partly to blame for this.
Local organisation Voluntary Sector Assembly, Herefordshire has been putting some of the practical advice offered by the guide into action. The VSA now works with other members of the voluntary and community sector in a collaborative effort to combat climate change, with a hope that it will make a difference. Sue Black, VSA Coordinator, says: “It has become increasingly relevant with the extreme weather events this summer (2007) in the UK, and particularly with the flooding in Herefordshire in July.”
Says Mark Walton, Head of the Every Action Counts Programme: “We’re hoping to get 14,000 voluntary and community organisations improving their green credentials, and this guide offers simple, practical steps to achieve this. It’s really not as daunting as it might seem and this guide serves to highlight this. All of us must take responsibility for protecting the environment, and the many local voluntary and community organisations out there must play a part in this.”
So what can organisations do to become more environmentally friendly? Some top tips in the guide include:
• Drawing up an action plan for your organisation to highlight practical things that staff and volunteers can do to reduce the amount of waste produced, the amount of energy consumed, and the amount of resources used
• Paper - if possible, don’t use it at all! Stop and think – do you really need to print out that e-mail, or if you do need to print, can you re-use paper? When you’ve used it, don’t forget to recycle
• Minimise your power consumption, and what you do use, make sure it’s green energy. This means simple things such as switching off computers, monitors, photocopiers, franking machines etc when they’re not in use. Using low energy light bulbs, turning the heating down to between 19 and 21 and switching to a green electricity supplier are all really effective ways of saving energy
• When you buy, make sure you’re buying low environmental impact products wherever possible. Recycled paper and office supplies, re-fillable cartridges and ecologically sound cleaning materials are all easy to source today. When buying larger goods such as appliances and hardware, make sure they’re low energy rated to reduce your impact on the environment
To order a free copy of ‘Changing the Way You Work’ (one available per organisation) register your organisation with Every Action Counts at info@everyactioncounts.org.uk/register . For the latest news and information on ‘greening’ your organisation visit www.everyactioncounts.org.uk
