Blog Action Day: The Environment and WorkLife Culture

Environmentally Conscious @ Work

Today, Monday, October 15th, I’m participating in Blog Action Day along with about 16,000 other blog writers to raise awareness about environmental concerns. In the realm of worklife culture and worklife balance, it’s a no-brainer. Big and small, businesses are realizing that taking interest in the topic not only benefits a company’s reputation, but also has a resounding impact within the workplace among employees. It can be a boost for employee engagement not to mention shareholder opinion.

It’s one thing for businesses to become more environmentally conscious, but that top down approach can only go so far unless we as individuals examine our own behavior whether in the workplace – or if we work from home. With my mind on Blog Action Day, I took a hard look at my behavior and eeekkksss, I have some stuff to work on. Here’ s a brief anecdote and ten tips to be more environmentally conscious @ work.

Friday – an Epiphany

As I left my desk in the newsroom on Friday to anchor the six o’clock show, I took a quick look at the TV to check the breaking news on the national stations. It’s part of my routine prior to doing the show. But I did not turn off my TV when I left my desk.

Strolling down to the TV studio, I grabbed a bunch of scripts for the show from the associate producer. The hard copy, as it’s called, a good 20-30 pages. If there’s a sudden glitch with the teleprompter I’ve got that hard copy on standby to gaze at. Entering the studio I stopped at the watercooler grabbed a styrofoam cup and filled it with hot water. After the show I dumped my scripts in the garbage along with the styrofoam cup. I’ll stop here to avoid further embarrassment.

A New Me

The truth of the matter is that I knew better. At my station we have some plans in place to handle simple recycling issues and have even been offered suggestions on how to be more environmentally aware. Generally, I follow the recommendations which include carrying those scripts back to the newsroom to the recycling bin, using my own mug all day long instead of several foam cups, and yes -turning off my TV, curling iron and other stuff when I’m not using it. But it’s up to me to care enough to implement simple changes in my behavior.

I use a mug in my home office and now I also have one for the studio. This little rise in worklife awareness made me think of my home office where I spend at least half of my business week. Here are some tips to raise your environmental prowess in your home office. And yes, I do all of these things!

1. Turn off your computer, printer etc.,  and unplug it at night.
2. Use only mugs and utensils that won’t fill the landfills – wash em.
3. Either mail in your used printer cartridges back to the company or bring to Staples or other such office supply stores – some will give you a discount on further purchases.
4. Instead of printing every interesting item off the Internet, have a few revolving article files on your computer. Cut and past to this and after you read what you need – delete!
5. If you must print articles just for reading. Save the paper and reuse the other side.
6. If you are away from your home office for any length of time past a bathroom break, turn off all the lights. When we work at home we tend to keep everything going.
7. If you’re in your office all day in one room, regulate your heat or AC room by room if you have the ability.
8. Recycle, recycle, recycle. If you have a paper shredder – use it primarily for proprietary information and throw that into the recycling bin as well.
9. Use paper bags in the garbage bins near your desk instead of plastic.
10. Take an inventory of your books, computer manuals and how-to books. If you don’t need them – donate to a local library.