3 ways to celebrate Earth Day in your office all year round

 

 

One thing we’ve learnt from a year in lockdown is that most of our journeys simply weren’t necessary and we quite easily replaced our drives (and even flights!) to meetings with video calls. This is all great news for the environment, but for those businesses that rely on being close to their customers, how can you mitigate the impact?

 

Electric vehicles are becoming more and more accessible and can be a really straightforward change to build into your future planning. Whether your business leases or owns cars and vans, set the intention in your plan to switch to electric as soon as possible.

 

When problems arise, customers want fast solutions. To keep our customers safe but operational during the pandemic, our Service teams have often been able to use smart diagnostic software to make essential repairs to their machines. Could you do something similar? Perhaps you can offer live chats to your customers? Or invest in new online tech to make it easier for them to connect with your business or buy your products?

 

Do you know how much energy your laptop consumes? Or your office shredder? Or even the fridge where you keep your packed lunch? If you don’t, you’re far from alone. So, perhaps now is the time to do a little research and see if your office machines are all as energy efficient as they can be – the less energy they consume, the less carbon they emit. When buying business machines and domestic appliances, make sure you ask your supplier about their ‘TEC’ value (Typical Energy Consumption). Not only is this a key factor in decreasing the impact of the machine on the planet but keeping it low will save your business money.

 

 

In Japan, environmentalists exclaim, “Mottainai!”, when something that can be put to use is discarded. It roughly translates as “what a waste!” and is a great word to keep in mind whenever we think about throwing things away, particularly when there may be no good reason for doing so. Do the conference room chairs need to be dumped or can they be cleaned up and reupholstered instead? Can that printer be returned to the manufacturer for refurbishment and re-sale? If not, then make sure you process the unusable items properly, ensuring that the component materials are recycled and/or recovered.

 

 

Keep “Mottainai!” at the front of your mind not only for the things you already own, but as a reminder that you too can give a second life to great pre-owned products. Future resource scarcity is a very real issue and as a result, we need to buy into the circular economy today. For example, when you need new office machines, is it absolutely necessary to buy brand new? As we mentioned above, the Canon EQ80 range of printers are ‘remanufactured’, which basically means that when they have reached the end of a lease, they are returned to the factory for complete disassembly, cleaning, upgrading and testing. Then they are put back on sale with the same warranties and efficiencies as a brand-new machine. Makes absolute sense, doesn’t it? As sustainability goals become more and more of a priority for businesses everywhere, it’s absolutely time to look at things differently. Earth Day shows us the power of a billion people contributing. Let’s be inspired by it and play our part – every day.

 

Discover more about sustainability at Canon.