Want a Green Star Rating? 5 Ways to Green your Office in 2021
Want a Green Star Rating? 5 Ways to Green your Office in 2021
As awareness of climate change continues to grow, companies are expected to adopt eco-friendly practices in the design and operation of their premises. In response to this, the Green Star South Africa rating tool has been tasked with measuring the ‘green rating’ of property developments.
What are Green Star-rated buildings?
Development projects that use eco-friendly construction practices have the potential to be awarded four, five, or six-star ratings. A rating scale of one to three stars is allocated to existing developments that are endeavoring to adopt greener practices in their operations.
Obtaining a Green Star Rating for your business premises is a rigorous process, but it’s the ultimate eco-achievement that all businesses should strive towards! For now, here are five tips to help you future-proof your office.
1. Take advantage of natural lighting
Research has shown that artificial lighting in corporate spaces makes up between 20% and 30% of a building’s energy consumption. By relying on natural light, your office can make substantial cuts to energy use.
2. Paperless all the way!
This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many offices still rely on paper-based systems. Save the trees (and your time) by switching over to cloud-based document storage and make a habit of reading digital documents on your device’s screen.
3. Decorate with indoor plants
Indoor plants have both aesthetic, and wellness benefits. Bring life back into your office with vibrant pops of greenery that also improve the air quality of your workspace through the absorption of CO2.
4. Initiate a sustainability committee
If your company has the resources, a sustainability committee can be appointed and tasked with ensuring that efforts to adopt eco-friendly practices in business operations are followed. This committee can also create green ‘challenges’ to incentivise colleagues.
5. Prioritise efficiency
Choose devices and appliances that are energy efficient. You can also offset energy use by replacing your bulbs with LEDs, or by installing motion-activated lighting systems if you can’t rely on sunlight.
What will it cost?
While there is sometimes an assumption that ‘greening’ our office spaces places too much financial pressure on businesses, companies are finding that eco-friendly practices in the office space help to cut costs and even generate more revenue. This is because clients are increasingly favoring companies that exhibit values of environmental and social responsibility.