How to make your workplace more sustainable

Workplaces consume a lot of energy, paper and materials — and most of it is avoidable with no loss of productivity. The changes that save the most are usually the same ones that reduce costs and improve working conditions.

Quick wins: energy, paper and the kitchen

Most workplace sustainability improvements are simple and free. The challenge is usually making them the default rather than relying on individual effort each time.

• Go paperless wherever you can. Most documents that get printed are read once and binned. Use shared drives, digital signatures and screen-based review instead. Where printing is genuinely needed, print double-sided and in draft mode.
• Power down at the end of the day. Computers, monitors, printers and shared equipment left on overnight waste energy continuously. Enable sleep settings on computers and use power strips so multiple devices can be switched off at once.
• Lighting: use natural light where possible, switch to LED if you haven't already, and make sure lights in meeting rooms, toilets and storage areas aren't left on when empty. Motion sensors are inexpensive and effective for less-used areas.
• Sensible heating and cooling. An office that's too hot or too cold is uncomfortable and wasteful. Set thermostats to a reasonable working temperature, heat and cool only occupied areas, and check that doors to the outside stay closed.
• Recycle correctly. Mixed or contaminated recycling often goes to landfill. Put up clear, simple signage near bins — people recycle more accurately when they know the rules for their specific collection.
• Reusable mugs and bottles. Remove single-use cups from communal areas. Providing reusable alternatives or asking people to bring their own is an easy, visible change.
• Cut kitchen and food waste. A shared fridge with no clear ownership becomes a source of forgotten, wasted food. A simple labelling and regular clear-out policy keeps it manageable. Order catering based on realistic attendance, not optimistic head counts.

Commuting and business travel

How people get to work and travel for business is often a workplace's second-largest source of emissions after energy. It's also an area where policy and culture make a real difference.

• Active travel and public transport. Walking, cycling and public transport produce a fraction of the emissions of a single-occupancy car journey. Making these options attractive — secure cycle storage, showers, public transport salary sacrifice schemes — increases take-up.
• Cycle-to-work schemes. Many countries offer tax-efficient cycle purchase schemes through employers. They're low-cost to administer and meaningfully support cycling commuters.
• Hybrid and remote working. A day at home replaces a commute entirely. Where roles allow it, flexible working is one of the most effective tools for reducing commuting emissions — and is often valued highly by employees. See our sustainable home office guide for making remote work lower-impact too.
• Fewer flights. Business flights have a significant emissions impact. Video calls are a genuine alternative for most meetings; they're faster, cheaper and increasingly the norm. Where travel is necessary, train is almost always lower-impact than flying for journeys under four to five hours.
• Car sharing and EV. Where cars are unavoidable, car sharing and electric or hybrid vehicles reduce the impact. If the company owns vehicles, electrifying the fleet is worth prioritising.

Smarter purchasing

What a workplace buys has a significant footprint. A few simple purchasing principles cut waste and cost.

• Buy less, use more. Before ordering anything, ask whether it's genuinely needed. Offices accumulate excess stationery, redundant IT equipment and unused supplies at surprising speed.
• Choose durable and refurbished tech. Certified refurbished computers, monitors and phones are substantially cheaper than new, work well for most office tasks, and avoid the emissions of new manufacturing. Extend the life of existing equipment with upgrades (more RAM, an SSD) before replacing it.
• Set environmental criteria for suppliers. For regular suppliers of consumables, ask about their environmental credentials — recycled content, packaging, delivery emissions. Large buyers have leverage; small ones can at least make it a criterion and switch when better options are available.
• Consumables: recycled paper, refillable pens and concentrated cleaning products all reduce waste. Buy in appropriate quantities — ordering too much leads to waste from expired or unused stock.

Engage colleagues

Sustainable practices at work stick when they're shared and social — not imposed from above or done in isolation. A few approaches that actually work:

• Lead by example without lecturing. Bring a reusable cup, take the stairs, turn off your monitor. People notice what peers do. Quiet modelling is often more effective than announcements.
• Share ideas, not shame. A simple shared channel, noticeboard or occasional email with practical suggestions is more effective than guilt-driven messaging. Focus on things that help people — saving money on commuting, better food in the kitchen, a more comfortable working temperature.
• Celebrate visible progress. If paper use has dropped or energy bills are lower, share that. Measurable progress motivates further change better than abstract encouragement.
• Make it easy to participate. Don't require extra effort for the default behaviour. If the recycling station is well-organised and labelled, most people will use it without being asked.

How to start a workplace green initiative

1. Start with a conversation, not a committee. Talk to two or three colleagues who've shown interest. You don't need formal permission to raise an idea informally.
2. Pick one visible, achievable first change. A properly labelled recycling station, a reusable mug policy, or a lunchtime walk are all things that can happen without a budget or a manager's sign-off.
3. Measure something simple from the start. Paper ream consumption, electricity bill, number of flights booked. You can't show progress without a baseline.
4. Formalise when there's momentum. Once colleagues are engaged, propose a small "green team" with a regular slot — even 30 minutes a month — to review progress and plan the next step.
5. Link to what management cares about. Cost reduction, staff satisfaction and regulatory compliance are all genuine co-benefits of many sustainability measures. Frame proposals around these where it helps.
6. Avoid greenwashing. Don't claim more than you've done. Honest, specific progress ("we reduced paper use by 40% this quarter") is more credible and more motivating than vague environmental messaging.

For managers and business owners

Policy and culture set by leadership makes the biggest difference. Individuals can model good behaviour, but consistent change needs structural support.

• Conduct an energy audit. Understanding where energy is used — heating, cooling, lighting, equipment — makes it much easier to prioritise where to act. Many energy suppliers offer basic audits; independent assessors can go deeper.
• Set specific, measurable goals. "Be more sustainable" achieves little. "Reduce electricity consumption by 15% in 12 months" creates accountability and allows genuine progress tracking.
• Invest in the highest-return upgrades first. LED lighting, better heating controls and insulation typically pay back in two to five years. Renewable energy procurement or solar can follow once baseline efficiency is addressed.
• Make sustainable travel the easy option. Expense policies that make train travel as simple as flights, and cycle storage as accessible as car parking, shape which choices people make.
• Avoid greenwashing your communications. If you claim environmental credentials, back them with data. Customers, employees and regulators are increasingly able to identify vague claims, and the reputational cost of getting caught overstating is higher than the short-term gain.

Workplace sustainability checklist

• Set computers and monitors to sleep after a short idle period.
• Power down all non-essential equipment at the end of the working day.
• Print double-sided as the default; question whether printing is needed at all.
• Set up a clearly labelled, accessible recycling station.
• Remove single-use cups; make reusables the default.
• Set a sensible thermostat — heat and cool occupied areas only.
• Establish a fridge labelling and clear-out policy to cut food waste.
• Ask HR or payroll about a cycle-to-work scheme.
• Replace the next laptop or monitor with a certified refurbished model.
• Replace the next business flight with a video call or train journey.
• Propose or join a workplace green team.
• Set one measurable sustainability goal with a 12-month target.