The environmental audit for a green office
An "audit" can be as basic as a member of your environmental committee walking through the office, observing what is happening now and talking to other staff.
Here is a list of different activities you can carry out in your environmental audit:
- Check to see if equipment is left switched on when it is not being used for long periods of time or after staff have gone home.
- Check what types of waste is being put into rubbish bins, and how often paper is used on only one side.
- Find out what fuel is used in company cars and how many business miles are made by what form of transport.
- Survey how many people walk to work, travel by bus or would consider cycling to work.
- Find out about current purchasing policies.
- Talk to other staff about their ideas to greening the office, such as saving energy or reducing waste.
The environmental audit can be used to look at each aspect of your office. You can determine how your activities affect the environment, assess the significance of the impacts and look at options to make low cost and no cost improvements.
Your environmental co-ordinators may decide to use outside consultants for a more formal audit. There are a number of companies that conduct environmental audits. They will also look at aspects such as raw materials used, products, energy, waste, transport, and the general work environment.
Monitoring and communication of your environmental policy
Adopting an action plan is not the end of the process. The environmental coordinators should talk to staff and be prepared to listen to their comments. You need to know how these new policies are affecting their work habits. They may have come up with more ideas now they are starting to be a green office.
This is an ideal opportunity to communicate the progress of Greening the office.
Managing the change is very important, you should let staff know what results have been achieved. Produce charts and notices to display on staff comment boards or at the reception so customers can see your efforts in protecting the environment.
Use Greener Now to help you carry out your environmental audit and turn your workplace into a green office.
