Going green in the office environment isn’t only about conservation of the earth’s resources. It can be a great way to help you save money, too. Many small businesses look at ways to save money and bring the local community together (Hi Randwick, Maroubra, Clovelly and Coogee!). Going green can be an important step in achieving these aims.
Here are some of the ways we’ve looked at greening-up The Orbit Group offices recently.
Office coffees and reusing cups
As part of the eastern suburbs of Sydney, we’re but a short bus ride from the iconic Bondi beach and a cheerful walk from Coogee, Clovelly and Maroubra. That’s why we’re particularly proud of being a part of the home of the Responsible Runners campaign. Responsible Runners is a community initiative to clean the local beaches of rubbish and cigarette butts. The aim is to get exercise while cleaning the beaches. This simple community campaign has picked up a whopping 21 tonnes since 2012.
We’ve also been looking at their sister project, Responsible Cafes. This was after finding out 1billion disposable coffee cups make their way to landfill. Some via our beautiful Sydney beaches per year, hence the link to Responsible Runners.
A lot of small business is conducted over coffee (and tea). It’s a favourite pick-me-up in The Orbit Group office. And we participate in the culture of business over coffee in a cafe. So we’re happy to see such a proactive initiative run by cafes and small business owners in our local area.
Responsible Cafes encourages local cafes to give a discount to members who use re-usable coffee cups. You can find your local keep cup friendly coffee fix via the Responsible Cafe’s website.
Make use of cloud accounting
It’s exciting to see more Australian small businesses move towards cloud accounting each week. Not just because we love Xero but because we love the planet, too. Paper records require trees for paper. They use earth intensive chemicals for printing. And resources such as folders, plastic sleeves and metal filing cabinets to house them safely.
Paper records also create clutter and cost money in space for storage. Especially seeing records need to be kept for seven year stretches! Living in an office dominated by boxes and files is a costly and cramped exercise.
Transferring to Xero with the help of The Orbit Group is a way of saving money while going green. Once you’re set up, you can say goodbye to spending your days wading through paper.
Switching to cloud computing makes the need for big, heavy and bulky paper records a thing of the past. That’s good news for your office shelf space and for the environment on so many levels.
Dispose of your small business items thoughtfully
Small businesses have a lot of stuff that can be tricky with the environment. E-waste like old computers and/or spent printer cartridges can all have an environmental cost.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to minimise the impact of your Randwick small business on landfill.
Randwick Council is proactive about recycling and encouraging proper disposal of all kinds of waste. That’s why Randwick Council run a recycling centre in Matraville. It accepts e-waste, printer cartridges and other items from residents and small businesses.
If you have an old mobile (or 3) hanging around the office, Mobile Muster is what you need. Mobile Muster has many collection points in Randwick, Clovelly, Waverley, and Bondi and beyond. Check the Mobile Muster website to find the closest collection point to you.
If you’ve got furniture in working order, consider donating them to Marrickville based re-use specialists Reverse Garbage. Reverse Garbage will gladly take furniture and all kinds of wonderful items off your hands. It’s another great way to save money on destruction or carting things away while diverting from landfill.
Large or small, greening your office can help
Small changes add up. Switching from bottled water to a clay filter for tap water is effective. Choosing greener light globes at the shops makes you smile with every power bill. Taking a reusable shopping bag with you to grab the next round of office supplies helps keep plastic at bay.
So too does rethinking your daily office coffee cup. Or what you do with your office waste. And of course our personal favourite, switching to cloud accounting.
We can definitely help you with all things cloud accounting. And we’d love to hear other local businesses in the Randwick and Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs share office greening tips. Feel free to share them on social media and/or leave them in the comments below!
