How to Start Green Building Cleaning

So you want to do something for the environment at your office? Think your office cleaning could stand to be greener? More and more offices are looking to lessen their marks on the environment, and together, they’re making quite an impact.

Want to start going green at your office? Here is your essential guide to green building cleaning.

Start recycling

Going green starts when everyone in the office or building is pitching in and doing their part. The easiest way to get them involved is to start a recycling program and encourage everyone to organize their trash.

Set up recycling bins around your office in strategic locations. Put bottle and aluminum recycling bins in your break rooms and cafeteria. This will encourage people buying cans of soda and bottled water from vending machines to recycle their empty cans and bottles when they’re finished.

Place paper recycling bins near printers. People often print off extra papers or the wrong documents by accident. Having the recycling bin right there will make it easy for them to recycle without having to walk far.

The trick to implementing a new recycling program is to make it as easy and non-invasive as possible. If employees don’t have to take an extra step to recycle (putting the paper bin right next to the printer instead of across the room), then they will be more likely to start doing it.

Ditch harmful cleaners

Take a look at your office cleaning supplies. What are they? Do you use a lot of antibacterial products, especially during cold and flu season?

While you never want to sacrifice the quality of your commercial cleaning service, it may be time to ditch some of your building cleaning products in favor of more environmentally friendly products. These products are safe to wash down drains without harming the water supply.

Although you may swear by antibacterial sanitizer over hand soap, remember that they don’t always protect you. When a hand sanitizer fails to kill a type of bacteria on a person’s hands, that bacteria go on to reproduce and create more resistant bacteria. Now that strand is immune to your hand sanitizer and will continue to infect others around the office.

Encourage people to use regular hand soap by keeping it in all bathrooms. Though some will bring their own hand sanitizer, most will just use hand soap.

Choose green office supplies

Sometimes going green starts with using green supplies around the office. Look for environmentally-friendly alternatives to common office supplies such as:

• Light bulbs
• Paper and files
• Toner
• Ink
• Pens

By reducing the amount of garbage going into landfills, your office is doing its part.

Turn off equipment at the end of the day

Some people like to leave their computers on all night so they can easily get back to work in the morning. They also tend to leave lights on in the bathrooms and even in offices. This wastes electricity, and it leads to high energy bills at the end of the month.

Start a new policy around the office and make sure everyone starts turning office their equipment and their lights. The company will save money, and your office will lessen its own carbon footprint.

Green cleaning starts when everyone in the office gets involved. Tell us, how will you get your office involved in green cleaning? Share your ideas with us!