To list all those gestures that can reduce our carbon footprint in the office, we have asked Cyril Hergott, who runs an environmental advice cooperative. When Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, the president of the Medef, says that in each company we must appoint a “ambassador of sobriety”Cyril Hergott applauds but insists on the fact that he must form around him a group of employees, who will give ideas, adapted to the company and its sector.
First position on which we can play: the heating. That’s half the energy consumption of an office building. One more degree of heating means 7% more consumption for the building. Same for the air conditioning. Accepting to support an additional degree means saving 5%. If you have control over heating and air conditioning, the first eco-gesture is to have a light hand on these two items.
Second sector on which one can act: his computer. On does not always have this reflex, but as soon as you leave your office for a certain time, for a meeting for example, you absolutely must turn off your computer, and not put it on standby as you usually do . A computer is made to be turned off and on up to eight times a day without its operation being altered, insists Cyril Hergott. Standby consumes power.
Always around the computer, you have to be attentive to your emails even if the energy consumption is going to take place in the data center, the data center, and not in the company directly. Do not leave a large number of tabs open, absolutely classify your emails, it is a great source of energy saving, do not systematically “reply to all” and pay attention to attachments. It is much better to place a download link in the body of the email.
Finally there are the copiers. it is absolutely necessary to limit individual copiers and place one fifteen or twenty meters from the workstations. In order not to start printing unnecessarily, it is useful to have a badge or an individualized code, which triggers the printing. And of course, it’s up to everyone to turn off the copier in the evening before leaving.