Employees keen on green but need reminding

Through clearly communicated policies, companies can sway eco-conscious workers to reduce costly waste at the office

That’s one of the take-aways from a poll recently commissioned by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Sun. Among examples of inconsistent behaviors exhibited by employees:

– 92 percent of participants said they turn of their lights at home, whereas only 52 percent of workers turn off the light when they leave a room at work.

– 58 percent said they turn off computers at home when they are done using them, whereas only 34 percent does so at work.

– 57 percent of workers are using sleep mode for their home computers, but only 44 percent do so at work.

All that adds up to a lot of waste for your company. As I’ve noted before, the costs alone of leaving computers on 24/7 can rack up — as much at $75 in waste electricity per PC and monitor, per year, according to Energy Star.

And, of course, there’s the environmental impact to that wasted energy. According to Sun, “if the percentage of America’s 81.1 million office workers who are not turning off lights and computers at work took their energy-conscious behaviors to work with them, those workers could achieve the equivalent of taking 6.1 million cars off the road in aggregate CO2 emissions.”

The problem is pretty clear, and there are some good solutions, too. Dave Douglas, Sun’s VP of eco-responsibility, suggests that companies communicate to employees ways to be better environmental stewards at the office.

“If you’re an employee, these survey results show that you have an enormous opportunity to make a difference for our planet and to help America’s business make better use of their economic resources,” Douglas said in a written statement. “If you’re an employer, bridge this gap by communicating about the issue and how everyone can benefit by taking small steps. The good news is that your employees care about the environment, but they may need your help in realizing how much they can actually make a difference.”

That strikes me as sound advice indeed. It’s entirely possible that employees don’t know whether or not they should be turning off their systems, perhaps thinking they need to be patched at night. Or, perhaps your company’s current policy is to leave systems on for just that reason — even though there are products on the market designed to wake up systems for that kind of maintenance, then put them back to sleep.

Whatever the reason for employees’ lapses, it certainly makes abundant sense to send out an all-company missive explaining how workers might save energy at work. Visual reminders, such as small signs over light switches saying “Please turn off the lights when you are done with the conference room” would also help.

On a similar note, companies might consider reminding employees of the costs of printer waste. Research suggests that each end-user wastes about $85 worth of printer paper and ink each year through unnecessary prints, such as spill-over pages containing a superfluous line of text or gridlines, according to GreenPrint. (There’s a great list of tips for reducing printer waste here at SeekingAlpha.)

And again, a small sign at the printer and copy station asking employees to only print and copy what they need would serve to put a dent in the pile of waste.