With millions of employees shifting to work-from-home (WFH) as a result of the pandemic, corporations have been thrust into a whole new work environment. They’ve been forced to reduce reliance on paper, minimize (if not eliminate) face-to-face meetings, and implement new technology to allow remote collaboration. But, the beautiful side effect of all this has been increased awareness of the environmental benefits of working remotely.
According to a recent study, 61% of workers listed reducing pollution as a top benefit of working from home. The crazy thing is, it does have a major impact. Global Workforce Analytics estimates that if employees worked from home half of the workweek, they could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons every year. Additionally, with fewer people in the office, employers can cut down on major resources like paper and printing, which ultimately helps create less waste.
It’s clear there are multiple economic and environmental benefits to working from home but what happens when employees start to return to the office? We’ve put together some WFH sustainability initiatives that you can bring back to the corporate office when things return to normal.
Go digital
Digitizing the office can not only have a huge impact on sustainability efforts, but it can also boost efficiency and productivity among employees. There are some barriers to digital transformation like partial or half-hearted implementation and lack of employee adoption.
However, you can overcome those challenges by adopting tools that are easy to learn, simple to use, and allow different layers of information access depending on the employees’ roles.
The benefits of digital transformation
The benefits of digitizing workflows are clear:
- Enhanced collaboration: Clients and employees can easily review, share, and sign documents without having to print or scan.
- Cost savings: Going paperless means organizations can stop spending money on unnecessary items like paper and printing supplies.
- Increased employee satisfaction: Our recent report found higher rates of job satisfactionamong employees who had access to digital tools to do their jobs well.
At Nitro, we not only provide the technological tools to support digital transformation, but we partner with you to ensure full employee training, onboarding, and adoption.
Decrease the use of office paper products
Did you know the EPA estimates the average knowledge worker goes through 10,000 pieces of paper each year and that employees waste an average of four hours per week on paper-based tasks? World Paper Free Day may be just around the corner, but your organization can commit to paper reduction initiatives all year round. Consider taking the pledge November 6th as a starting point for reducing paper use in your corporate office.
Going paperless not only saves your organization money, but it also saves your employees’ time and reduces strain on precious resources (like trees!) and all the energy load that goes into turning them into paper.
Travel only if there is a need
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average American commuter spends nearly 30 minutes per day traveling one way to work. Apart from the amount of time it wastes (that amounts to nine full days a year spent in your car!), the environmental impact of traveling to the corporate office every day versus working from home can be substantial. The average car in America, for example, emits six to nine tons of carbon dioxide in a year.
Imagine the reduction in carbon emissions if more workers didn’t have to drive to work every day?
Many organizations are now making hybrid workweeks part of their corporate sustainability initiatives, allowing employees to reduce their commuting time by working some days each week from home. Using tools like Nitro can help reduce the reliance on in-person collaboration and make the transition to a hybrid environment easier.
Want to talk more about ways you can bring corporate sustainability into your enterprise as we start returning to the office? We can help you get started!
