Frustrated workers demand ‘eco-offices’
MOST workers want to see more environmentally-friendly offices, with almost half complaining about how wasteful and unhygienic their workplaces are.
A survey of 2,000 office staff found 80 per cent want bosses to adopt more green measures like stopping taps from running constantly, not using petrol-fuelled company vehicles and recycling paper cups.
Forty-five per cent of those polled believe their offices are “eco-unfriendly”. A lack of food waste bins, people putting food in the general waste and colleagues mixing recycling were the top three green gripes.
Others were annoyed by lights left on all day and computers being left on at night.
A lack of charging ports for electric cars, no option to recycle paper towels, printers endlessly churning out paper and no incentives to encourage people to use electric vehicles also featured in the top complaints.
‘It’s a perfect place
to set an example’
Further gripes included people washing things by hand and leaving the tap running while doing so, kettles being continually boiled all day and the heating being left on unnecessarily, particularly when windows are open.
Office fridges being packed full with plastic bottles of water and stacks of single-use cups being used for water coolers also made the eco-conscious fume.
Some of those polled wanted to see incentives to share lifts, more cycle-to-work schemes adopted and alternatives to cow’s milk for tea and coffee being offered.
The study also revealed 46 per cent of office employees felt the introduction of green initiatives in their workplaces was an
“after thought”. The research was carried out by hygiene and health company Essity, to launch Tork Papercircle, the UK’S first paper towel recycling system, which is being installed in Astrazeneca’s new UK office.
An Essity spokesman said: “We spend so much of our time in the workplace, so it’s a
perfect place to set an example. There has been a definite shift over the past 18 months in our general attitudes towards how to be environmentally friendly.
“People now seem to be taking the issue more seriously than ever before.”
Other studies have suggested replacing
corner cabinets with large plants, or each desk having a smaller plant, to make offices greener and give them a more natural feel.
And the adoption of paperless meetings, and moving desks and seating to embrace natural light were also seen as positive measures to improve workplaces.