ESG – Environmental, Social, and Governance – stands for the three components of a business’s sustainability performance. Three out of four consumers change their purchase preferences based on ESG factors, according to a CapGemini report. How well does ESG integrate into the new hybrid workplace?
There’s good news: Hybrid offices are a natural choice for boosting your organization’s ESG.
Energy usage
- Zoned space utilization systems automatically group hot desks and office reservations into energy-saving zones
- Smart building systems reduce lighting and HVAC consumption during unoccupied hours
Fun fact: One degree change in indoor temperature means thousands fewer kilowatt hours, and thousands of dollars in savings over the course of one year.
Reduced emissions
- Fewer trips to the office equals fewer commuting miles per week.
- Smart buildings’ reduced energy use results in less emission-producing energy generation.
Reduced waste
- More meals at home means less lunch take-out waste
- Offices produce less paper waste if document conversion (digitization) is in place.
This last topic, digitization, deserves additional discussion. Almost all businesses generate paper documents. Those records are important to business operations, and they should be retained as long as necessary.
But paper documents tend to beget more paper – distribution copies, unnecessary printouts, backup copies, etc. The cost to manufacture, transport, and print of all that paper adds up. And an estimated 45% of that paper ends up in the trash at the end of each work day.
Moreover, all that paper takes up an inordinate amount of room, an average of 9 square feet per file cabinet. Hybrid offices typically need less office space than traditional full-time offices, but they still need storage space.
After converting paper documents to digital ones, much of the document storage area can be put to better use. For example, management consultants recommend creating lounge spaces for those invaluable “water cooler moments.” By reducing your storage space, you support hybrid-office creativity and culture without additional real estate costs.
And of course a database of digitized documents allows hybrid staffers to access necessary documents wherever they are working – in the office, at home, or in a co-working space.
Digitization is the perfect complement to your other ESG efforts. Create a “virtual filing room” and boost your sustainability rating.
Photo © Iriana Shiyan / AdobeStock
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