7 Ideas to Reduce Your Company's Carbon Footprint

A study by the Alliance for Corporate Transparency conducted on more than 1,000 companies reveals that in Europe, fewer than 15% of companies have climate targets aligned with the Paris Agreement, despite the measures imposed by the treaty.

Commuting, office energy consumption, daily digital usage… There are many sources of CO2 emissions in the workplace, on which it's possible to act by putting several initiatives in place.

Read also: Can digital sobriety and well-being at work go together?

So which eco-friendly habits should you adopt first? And how can they help you reduce your company's carbon footprint?

If you don't know where to start with your sustainability efforts, here are 7 ideas to put in place to reduce your company's carbon footprint:

Adopt eco-friendly habits every day

For many people, eco-friendly habits are already part of their daily lives. This can be, for example, turning off the light when leaving a room, closing the taps properly, or reducing plastic use. Eco-friendly habits that, put end to end, can help reduce our carbon footprint.

At work, other automatic habits are needed to reduce the environmental impact of employees and the company, but also to save money over the long term. This involves:

• Managing and adjusting the use of heating and air conditioning responsibly (heating accounts for 50% of office energy consumption) ;
• Giving employees a mug or a water bottle to replace disposable cups ;
• Sorting waste (separating glass, paper, food waste, and household waste into different bins, and biodegradable waste into a composter) ;
• Avoiding over-packaging ;
• Giving a second life to objects, for example by recycling empty ink cartridges ;
• Limiting paper use (according to ADEME, “it accounts for 75% of office waste” despite the rise of digital)

It's all about the reflexes and habits to adopt!

Optimize travel

Recurring trips (home-to-work, work-to-home, business meetings, etc.) have an impact on the climate because transportation is responsible for polluting emissions.

But no need to panic! It's possible to limit these emissions by favoring modes of transport that are more beneficial for the environment. You can, for example:

• Encourage soft modes of transport such as cycling, scooters, or walking ;
• Favor public transport in urban areas over the car whenever possible. For example, the subway emits 76 times less CO2 than the car ;
• Develop carpooling and mutual support among employees ;
• Roll out remote work within your organization ;
• Favor video conferencing for business meetings using a digital solution like Talkspirit, the French collaborative tool that lets you run video conferences in one click (no more being late!)

The Talkspirit solution also includes other features to streamline internal communication, collaborative work, and community management within your company.

Request a Talkspirit demo

Use digital tools responsibly

Digital technology has many advantages! As part of an ecological transition, it's notably an alternative to paper use and to travel. However, it's not without consequences! According to ADEME, 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to digital technology and this figure could double by 2025 if no measures are taken.

Here are a few best practices to share with your employees to help them adopt more responsible digital practices, and thereby reduce their carbon footprint:

• Empty your inbox regularly ;
• Reduce the size of the data you share (videos, images, documents, or large emails can sometimes be very heavy, and therefore have a significant carbon impact) ;
• Favoring the chat over emails for quick exchanges avoids increasing your carbon footprint by 4 g CO2 eq, the weight of a standard email without an attachment ;
• Closing tabs you're not using while browsing ;
• Deleting your browser's cookies and downloads regularly ;
• Favoring “energy-saving” mode to counter excess energy consumption ;
• Unsubscribe from newsletters you never read.

Read also: [BFM Business] How to reduce digital pollution in the workplace

Roll out hybrid work

Hybrid work is the combination of in-person work and remote work. This new way of working is increasingly being rolled out within organizations because it has many advantages on the social, economic and of course ecological level!

• It reduces commuting, which represents “the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions from office activities,” according to ADEME. One day of remote work per week would thus generate an environmental benefit of 271 kg CO2 eq per year ;
  
• It allows employees to have a better work-life balance ;

• Finally, 60% of executives believe that hybrid work reduces absenteeism and boosts employee productivity.

Read also: Reducing your energy consumption thanks to hybrid work

Of course, hybrid work can't be improvised. If you're looking to put this way of working in place, we therefore recommend reading our white paper “The future of work: making way for hybrid work,” which gathers many tips and best practices. Click the banner to download it 👇

Replace your obsolete equipment with refurbished gear

Furniture, electrical and electronic equipment… The vast majority of the equipment we use is complex and its manufacturing contributes to the depletion of resources.

This process creates a vicious circle: the design of devices keeps multiplying, which drives overconsumption and consequently increases greenhouse gas emissions.

The solution to put an end to it? Turn to sustainable alternatives, which will reduce the economic and environmental costs of your equipment. Two options are possible:

• Buy refurbished devices: these are devices handled by professionals, restored to like-new condition at an attractive price. According to ADEME, the environmental impact of refurbished gear would be 2 to 4 times lower than that of producing a new device.

• Rent equipment so you can use it for a given period, without having to pay its full cost.

Switch energy providers

In an era where companies are increasingly looking to accelerate their digital transformation, electricity is essential, but also polluting.

To reduce your company's carbon footprint, it's possible to choose green electricity (Enercoop, ilek, Énergie d'Ici or Ekwateur). This is electricity produced solely from sources that nature can regenerate. This change is a considerable advantage because it pollutes little, and won't cost you more than a conventional provider!

In addition, you can also:

• Move into positive-energy premises. This is a building with a positive overall energy balance, whose energy production is higher than its consumption ;
• Install solar panels ;
• Install a heat pump.

Get employees involved in the process

Embarking on an effort to reduce the company's carbon footprint requires reviewing your company's entire ecosystem : management, practices, equipment, etc. It's then essential to involve your teams and communicate with them about implementing the transformation in several steps:

• Start by raising employee awareness of the climate crisis, making sure that the level of information is the same for every employee. It's possible, for example, to organize workshops with specialists to build connections, shared participation, and ensure that teams are well informed!

• Raise your employees' awareness through the collaborative workshop of the Climate Fresk ;
• Take part with your remote employees in a digital team building with OuiLive ;
• For 100% action-based awareness, get your teams on board with the Run For The Planet sports challenge ;
• Create a fun and eco-responsible experience for your employees with the tailor-made workshops from Lutila.

• Set objectives. For example, are you aiming for “zero paper,” digital sobriety, Green IT or the “net zero emissions” objective declared by the Paris Agreement? Defining your priorities will help employees feel more concerned, but also take a direct part in reaching your objectives.

• Assign responsibilities to employees, to raise awareness, engage your teams more effectively, and strengthen the sense of belonging to your company. For example:

• Appoint an ambassador among the employees to create linear management and give employees a voice ;
• Create working groups on topics that interest your employees, and you'll be sure to have teams committed to causes that resonate with them ;
• Make someone responsible for project creation to put fun activities in place, innovate, and foster collective experiences around environmental awareness.

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You now have several avenues to reduce the carbon footprint of your company and your teams!

To go further, you can also put in place a CSR policy (Corporate Social Responsibility), or look into concepts such as digital sobriety by following the tips listed in our checklist below!

Access our Checklist

In our checklist “10 best practices to achieve digital sobriety,” you'll discover: examples of initiatives and tools to put in place to reduce your digital carbon footprint, along with tips to evolve your practices and involve your employees in the process.

Download

¹Study by the Alliance for Corporate Transparency (2019)
²ADEME guide, Eco-responsible at the office (2022)
³ADEME guide, Eco-responsible at the office (2022)
⁴ADEME guide, On the road to digital sobriety (2022)
⁵ADEME guide, On the road to digital sobriety (2022)
⁶ADEME infographic “Is remote work really good for the environment?” (2020)
⁷Malakoff Humanis barometer, Remote work and hybrid organizations (2022)
⁸ADEME guide, On the road to digital sobriety (2022)