Eco your workplace for Green Office Week

Green Office Week started yesterday to highlight the importance of being eco-friendly at work as well as at home.

Campaigns like this are sorely needed.

Forty percent of carbon emissions come from businesses, compared to 27% from homes, yet many businesses are unwilling to change and institutionally encourage environmental apathy.

In a recent YouGov survey, nine in ten (92%) office workers said that it is important for UK companies to be environmentally responsible.

Meanwhile, nearly half (49%) of employees confessed that their company has no green policy in place.

Three in four Brits were found to leave their eco-conscience at home whilst at work, despite 79% of office workers believing that workplace waste has a big impact on the environment.

Reasons cited by employees for the disparity include lack of facilities, education, and communication, as well as company apathy and worker disempowerment.

The south of England was found to be particularly lagging, with one third more office workers dissatisfied with the eco-credentials of their workplace compared to top performing Scotland.

Londoners were the most environmentally apathetic, although this may be rooted in their relative lack of power - workers in London were 52% more likely to feel disempowered by their boss.

Eco-expert Nicky Amos commented: “We spend a third of our lives at work, and businesses are responsible for 40% of the UK’s carbon emission, compared with 27% from the home – so it’s vital that offices start to take action.

“Employees in the workplace hold the key to meaningful change by simply adapting their behaviour at work and they must be allowed to do so.”

Amos added: “Like it or not, the environment is on everyone’s agenda.

“These findings suggest that companies are generally poor at communicating their policies to employees or making them part of their culture.

“Green housekeeping should form the cornerstone of any company’s environmental agenda, yet many offices fail to bring their approach to life for employees or empower their workforce by making environmental responsibility a part of employee workplace practices or company culture.”