To celebrate World Earth Day, Hush Digital has made the conscious decision to take better care of the world around us and make some changes at HushHQ to make us a greener company. We already do digital differently, so it’s now time we do green differently!
To help us change the way we run our office on a daily basis, we have made the following changes in order to attempt a greener working environment:
Going Paperless
We are making every attempt to go paperless where we can. The team are encouraged to use laptops and tablets in meetings to take notes, which also sync directly to our Google Drive meaning we don’t have to keep countless paper copies in the office! All documents can be shared between any member of the team, leading us to use the printer less and less.
For the paper we are still using, we use a paper recycling and destruction service, popping all used and unwanted paper into our recycling bin that is collected bi-monthly and taken away for shredding to ensure we are both recycling and keeping our data safe by complying with data protection laws.
Multi-Use Items
We are trying to encourage to use of multi-use items at HushHQ, so as part of this initiative we have given every HushBot a reusable water bottle (in Hush grey of course, or Hush pink for Roz!) and have purchased some snazzy glass tumblers for when our fantastic clients visit, to cut out the use of paper and plastic cups at our water cooler
Although there’s always the temptation to be lazy and use paper plates and plastic cutlery every time we order an office Nando’s, crack out the cake for someone’s birthday or host one of our famous Hush BBQs, we are making a conscious effort to use our reusable cutlery and crockery and donning the Marigolds and Fairy Liquid to wash everything up afterwards.
Power-Save, Unplug, Switch Off or Snooze
To help us power-save where we can, we have set everyone’s computers to snooze after 5 minutes of inactivity, and every evening we make sure all lights, heating and electronics are all switched off (at the wall where possible). No point using up energy when none of us are here! We also have a rather snazzy Rijo coffee machine to keep our ‘Bots and visitors fuelled with lovely lattes and marvellous mochachinos, but the machine is set on an eco-mode and will go to sleep after a set time.
Collaborating With Eco-Friendly Businesses
Where possible we are trying to source and buy from eco-friendly suppliers and are attempting to buy products in bulk. We appreciate that sometimes it seems fancier to provide little single-serving packets of sugar or sweeteners for visitors to have with their hot drink, but buying things like this in bulk allows us to eliminate unnecessary waste and it probably saves us some cost in the long run too! There’s no messy bags of sugar or tea bags lying around in our kitchen either – everything has its place in a reusable glass jar so the ‘Bots can help themselves to whatever they need.
Adding A Bit Of Greenery
We are encouraging the HushBots to bring a desk plant to work. Not only does this add a bit of colour and something a little different to everyone’s desk decor, but it also improves the indoor air quality and brings some outdoor nature inside.
Plants can help reduce our office’s carbon emissions as well as helping to naturally purify the air around us. Some plants are even better than others for this, so before you jet out to buy a bonsai or aloe vera, we’d recommend considering a spider plant, peace lily, English ivy or bamboo palm.
Lay Off The Thermostat
The simplest little tweak to your heating or air conditioning can make a huge difference to your energy usage (and cost) over time. Even in the summer months, there is no need to let your office turn into a fridge, so let the heating maintain a steady temperature throughout the warmer season and this will save more energy – and money – in the long run.
In winter, we have ours set to a maximum temperature for the working hours – and just before to let our old, 4 story Georgian townhouse heat up before everyone comes in. We don’t crank it up and go wild however, if the ‘Bots are chilly but it’s heated to a perfectly comfortable temperature, they’re told to get a jumper on!
Monthly Challenges
The HushBots are now actively setting ourselves monthly eco-challenges to help us get greener and greener every month. This month our challenge is tying in with one of client’s very green campaigns (Let’s Go Tees Valley’s ‘Commuter Challenge’), so we are encouraging staff to walk, cycle, car share etc. – whatever avoids us each driving ourselves individually to the office every day!
We hope you take some inspiration from our eco-changes and implement some of them in the workplace or even at home!
