Today, we are all trying to do our bit to combat climate change. Companies have to contribute to this effort as well. Many of the solutions to reduce CO2 emissions as a company are self-evident, just think of: investing in renewable energy, investing in an electric car fleet, working from home, ... In this article you will read four other tips that your company can apply to avoid extra CO2 emissions.
Educate yourself, your staff and your customers
Change starts with knowledge. The vast majority of the Flemish people rarely or never talk about climate change because they do not know enough about it or because they find it scary. All these problems can be solved by education and a civilised conversation on the subject. Your company can promote dialogue among employees through business practices and policies on sustainability. By making your customers aware of your policies to reduce carbon emissions, they become aware of tactics they can use to reduce emissions as well.
Recycling of everyday materials
Recycling in your workplace is a simple way to reduce your organisation's carbon footprint. When we recycle, we reduce the number of raw materials needed to make products from scratch.
For example, by recycling one can, you save enough energy to power a computer for a full hour (source: EPA, US Environmental Protection Agency). Moreover, there is no limit to the number of times cans can be recycled.
With paper recycling, a tonne of recycled paper can save 17 trees from deforestation (source: University of Southern Indiana). Recycling collection points in the workplace can also promote a greener work culture. This is likely to appeal to your customer base and may even improve the morale of your own staff.
Recycling and reuse of e-waste
Recycling everyday waste is not enough. What is at least as important, but what many people often forget, is the recycling of e-waste: discarded computers, laptops, servers, keyboards, etc. Every company today operates with a lot of electrical appliances. These devices contain secondary raw materials that can be used for the production of new devices. Out of Use can help your company with this, our recycling percentage is 89.96%.
What is even more efficient than recycling, is reuse. By reusing your discarded appliances, or having them reused, you avoid up to 16 times more CO2 than by recycling. Our CO2-calculator charts this nicely. With this tool, in just a few clicks, you can calculate how much CO2 emissions you avoid by bringing your discarded e-waste to Out of Use.
After processing, you will receive a CO2 certificate stating how much CO2 your company has effectively avoided.
Planting trees
Planting trees, or even having a garden for your staff, is a great way to promote employee wellbeing and further offset your company's carbon emissions. If you don't have the space to plant your own trees or wildflowers, there are hundreds of tree planting projects online.
At Out of Use, for example, we have partnerships with Natuurpunt, Natagora and Natur&Ëmwelt. Bring your discarded electrical appliances to us, and together we can plant extra trees. So you avoid CO2 through recycling and/or reuse and you stimulate biodiversity in the Benelux, an absolute win-win.
Green Element. (2018). 10 ways to reduce your business carbon footprint. https://www.greenelement.co.uk/blog/reduce-business-carbon-footprint
S. W. (2019, 19 juli). How to reduce the carbon footprint of your business. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2019/07/19/how-to-reduce-the-carbon-footprint-of-your-business
US EPA. (2016). Environmental Factoids | WasteWise | US EPA. https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/smm/wastewise
USI Web Services. (2021). Paper Recycling Facts - University of Southern Indiana. University of Southern Indiana. https://www.usi.edu/recycle/paper-recycling-facts
Do you also want to save CO2 by recycling for nature?