Purchasing more environmentally friendly alternatives throughout an organisation can have an extensive environmental impact. Cost competitive alternatives exist for most items including stationery, printers, copiers, fridges, dishwashers, office lighting, cleaning materials.
What constitutes ‘environmentally friendly’?
Many products are sourced from non-renewable materials, they may be unable to ‘break down’ or be recycled at the end of their useful lives, or they may emit dangerous substances during use . There are many existing products which have a reduced environmental impact and contrary to the popular belief that such products are more expensive, many are competitively priced, if not cheaper.
Look out for products which are:
- Hard wearing and long lasting
- Made from recycled content
- Able to be recycled or re-used
- Have minimal packaging – the less the better
- Have as many natural ingredients as possible
Quick Tips:
- Seek tenants/staff input
- Ask suppliers of office stationery and office equipment to provide you with a list of their environmentally friendly products with evidence of their environmental benefits
- Review your purchasing criteria
- An eco-purchasing program assists eco-efficiencies within the workplace by reviewing the purchasing practices of an organisation as a whole
- Review your cleaning contract – ask cleaners to commit to gradually using alternative and more natural cleaning agents with possibly micro-fibre technology
- Replace polystyrene cups and wooden stirrers with real glasses/mugs & spoons - the coffee & tea will taste much better!
- Buy refillable pens – go lean - the less plastic the better
- Purchase remanufactured ink cartridges
- Purchase energy star IT equipment
- Purchase longer lasting items over short term use items
- Buy recycled content paper
- Be guided by environmental labels for office equipment and appliances such as printers & dishwashers
- Buy energy efficient lighting
- Offer environmental corporate gifts
- Establish a ‘redistribution room’ where unwanted goods & stationery can be stored for another person’s use – this also decreases expenditure in these areas.
More Information:
Green Office Guide - A guide to help you buy and use environmentally friendly office equipment (PDF - 629 Kb)- Sustainability Victoria’s Waste Wise Shopping Guide
- Eco-buy – ECO-Buy: A Centre of Excellence for green purchasing
- Eco-specifier – “over 1000 environmentally preferable products, materials and resources.”
- Victorian Government Environmental Purchasing Policy, principles and guidelines
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