These particular crazy times, where many of us are encouraged to work from home, are a great time to turn around our idea of office and make it a Green and Sustainable Ecofriendly Office. How? Keep on reading to learn about 6 ways and ideas to have a Sustainable Home Office.
Since March 2020 most of us have been sent to work from home, this means that our working spaces are being empty reducing the amount of energy utilized. On the other hand, our houses are emitting twice as much energy than before because we are there at all times using them as home office.
We can reduce the amount of energy and emissions we produce just by switching a few things around and create a sustainable ecofriendly home office space!
Having a sustainable home office is not as hard as everyone might think, you just need to change a few habits. First of all, you will be saving lots of energy and reducing your carbon footprint while doing this. Second, you will be happier I can assure that, and third you will probably save heaps of money on bills.
So let me show you some green home office ideas to make remote working as comfortable as possible. One of my biggest advice is to set up a particular place in your house that can work as your sustainable home office. This means that you won’t be moving around with your computer, notebook, paperwork, and whatnot around.
1- LIGHT
Make the most of natural light. Windows and open spaces will become your best friends. First of all, I would suggest you choose a room in your house that have plenty of natural light. This strategic move will save you a couple of dollars on your electricity bill, plus, who doesn’t enjoy natural light while working? Setting up your desk or working space next to a window is super important.
Personally, I love having my desk set next to my window and balcony because I can appreciate the colors better and looking out the window helps me think about new ideas.
If your house does not have this big lightful room I’m telling you about, you should probably pay attention to the color your walls are painted. Light colors tend to make spaces bigger and more luminous while darker colors make the rooms look smaller and darker of course. Having a nice and full of light room will turn your remote working into a sustainable home office.
So, pick up lighter and brighter colors and make the most of that natural light. Another idea to enhance the natural light in some spaces is to set some mirrors around, they will reflect the natural light making your home office brighter and nicer. Natural light is well known for helping increase your immunity system and improving your mood.
Wait! But what if my home office room is windowless? Well, some of you might have set up a garage or basement as your home office and are not able to get much sun or natural light then you might be wondering what the alternative is regarding light. I would definitely suggest to get some LED light bulbs, they use much less energy than regular bulbs and, in most cases, are as bright as natural light.
Have you thought how important light is before?
2- ENERGY SAVING HABITS
Did you know that some electronic devices still use energy even when turned off? This will become a life-hack not only for turning your office into a greener home office but everywhere in your house! Some devices continue to use energy only by being plugged in, it doesn’t matter whether they are on or off. If you wish to have a Sustainable home office just keep on reading this amazing ideas.
In order to reduce the amount of energy waste and emissions to turn our home office into a sustainable home office, I would suggest using a smart power strip. What is this? It is kind of a regular power strip, but it detects when a devise is not in use, and it automatically trips off the power. Some of these can be customized so, for example, once your computer has been shut down it will cut off the power to everything linked to the computer, thus save lots of energy.
Plus, many of the nowadays devices come with an energy saver mode that puts them to SLEEP MODE whenever you are not using them, like when you go to make yourself a coffee or to the toilet.
3- FURNITURE
Setting up your space might get tricky, because in the beginning you must have used whatever you had around, your dinning table, an old desk, or even your breakfast table because we all thought home office wasn’t gonna last long. Now that we are pretty aware that we might not come back to the office soon we rather have our own sustainable home office set up with everything that we need to work properly.
So, while some people might just have gone to the retailers and waste tons of money in new furniture and setting for their offices, I’d rather recycle whatever I have or find around. This will not only make you save couple of thousands but also will help reducing the carbon footprint by not cutting off more trees for furniture.
If you are not keen on buying new stuff, which I believe you are not, then you can just go to some op shop or look around your neighborhood where you might be able to find some used desks, chairs or cabinets that will help you set up your working space.
If you already have enough furniture at home, maybe its time to reorganize it so you can set up this green working space we’ve been talking about. Think about how things can be matched up in order to give your working space a new look.
Worst case scenario you need to buy a couple of things, well, there are lots of companies that produce sustainable ecofriendly furniture. This furniture is either made from recycled materials or just refurbished. Some of them are even made out of sustainable wood and would turn your space into a sustainable home office.
4- MATERIALS
Try always using sustainable materials. There are so many options this days that you might be surprised. From furniture to office supplies you can always get a greener alternative. For example, try replacing those wood pencils on your desk for some bamboo fiber made ones. Start buying recycled paper for your printer and print double sided, you can always keep old paper and use it on the blank side.
Also, go digital and print as less as you can, it is amazing how much paper we waste on useless printing. If drinking coffee and water, always choose sustainable options like reusable cups and tan water while avoiding coffee caps and bottled water. At the same time, you can replace paper tissues with reusable towels or washable rags and sticky notes with a white board and markers.
This choice of materials will help you reduce you waste as well and make your house a more sustainable home office.
5- PLANTS
What a better way to decorate your home office than with plants? OMG don’t we all love plants? This is not just me being so passionate about plants, it is the fact that indoor plants help reduce the air pollution by approximately 87%. Having them around your working space will also help you improve the air quality of the room and absorb pollutants like carbon monoxide and benzene. So let's have a look at this green home office ideas.
Most of indoor plants are really pretty to the sight and also very low maintenance. While some of them might need you to keep them away from direct sunlight, others will only require water once a week. So, a great choice for those always complaining about how they forgot about watering their plants.
Moreover, having a couple of plants in your office can help you decrease some temperature degrees because these plants will lose some water due to transpiration thus reduce the temperature in the room turning it into a sustainable ecofriendly home office.
It is natural for us, even though we do not think so, to be around green environments. Having some plants in your working space will help you boost your energy, have a positive mood. It is also known for plants to help increase productivity and cognition levels and enhance the sleeping quality. Plants will definitely change your house into a Sustainable home office.
6- PARTNERS
Always try to choose sustainable ecofriendly partners for your business. Or if you are in charge of choosing providers you can track them and do you own research whether they are sustainable or not. It wouldn’t make sense for you to have a partnership with someone who doesn’t care about reducing their carbon footprint as much as you do. I know it is not always possible, but you can try your best at it.
Now that I’ve given you a couple of tips to boost that sustainability around your home office, are you ready to go to the next level in order to save the planet? As I always say, it doesn’t matter how much you do because every small act counts. It doesn’t matter if it is composting or unplugging every device at nighttime, you are helping!
If you liked this article and would love to know more about how you can design a sustainable home, you can check this article: How to Design a Sustainable home? 50 easy sustainable home tips!