Reducing Waste in the Workplace: 5 Tips For Becoming a Greener Business

Here at Obvious, we’re fortunate to have the opportunity to launch pro-bono projects from time to time.

These self-led initiatives allow us to deploy our creative and strategic thinking towards causes we care about and work towards influencing positive social and environmental impact. 

We’re seasoned when it comes to coming up with creative ideas and turning them into fully-fledged design solutions and campaigns. So when we have a bit of time up our sleeves, a little inspiration and a network of fantastic like-minded individuals at our fingertips, we are all systems go!

Our story

Building a brand with purpose and a catalyst for positive environmental impact

Our latest brainchild is the ‘Wise about Waste Workplace Challenge’.

This idea was inspired by a conversation with Reusabowl’s co-founder Greg, discussing our team’s desire to work on a campaign with an environmental sustainability focus.

Following some inspiring kōrero and recognising the potential for wider-impact, our ambitions quickly evolved into an exciting nationwide competition encouraging, celebrating and normalising the reduction of waste in the workplace.

We can all do our part to look after the health of our planet – sometimes we just need a little nudge to get started (us included). When things become habitual (like grabbing your morning takeaway coffee or unnecessary printing) sometimes you need a prompt to stop and reflect.

Our self-reflection signalled not only that we could be practicing more sustainable behaviour ourselves, but that we have the unique ability as a marketing agency to empower and encourage others to do the same.

Obvious is by no means the industry expert for sustainability – and so began the recruitment of organisations who are. And we didn’t have to look far.

The Obvious team has recently joined the club of organisations reducing waste with Reusabowls.

After outreaching to our networks, we formed a collective of purpose-driven organisations who want to make Aotearoa less wasteful.

Alongside our friends at Reusabowl, we garnered the support of sustainability champions Foodprint, Wonky Box, Waste-Ed with Kate, Seasick Sunscreen, Reclaim | Recycling Week, Chia Sisters, Method Recycling, Two/Fiftyseven, Nurture, Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Mevo, Without Waste and the Ministry For The Environment.

These incredible organisations supported this initiative with prize sponsorship, networking and promotional support to encourage other businesses to participate.

Our allies at Go Media, Shout Media and Aro Digital also generously sponsored resources to spread the word across Aotearoa.

As a volunteer-run project, we are incredibly proud of the effort put in by everyone to bring this initiative to life.

Through these collaborations we have been able to speak with some amazing organisations that taught us how we can minimise waste in our workplaces and community to ease pressure on our landfills.

We’re proud to say our General Manager Essi completed the Go Zero Sustainability Bootcamp as part of our own journey toward becoming more sustainable workplace.

5 tips to be more environmentally sustainable in the workplace

In the spirit of sharing what we’ve learnt, here are some simple ideas you can implement to become wiser about waste in your workplace!

The waste hierarchy below can be used as a point of reference to help guide your efforts. Preventing waste from the start has the most impact, but we’re also big fans of reusing, recycling and recovering. Think of all the creative ways you can re-purpose something – the possibilities are endless.

A waste hierarchy indicates the most to least preferred methods of sustainable practice.

Tip 1. Audit

Start by measuring your current footprint.

First of all, it’s hard to improve on something you don’t measure! If you don’t already have a good understanding of your workplace’s situation, it might be best to review where your largest waste reduction opportunities lie, and what could be done to tackle things in order of priority and achievability. It’s better to know where to invest time and resources to make change effective; sometimes it’s the smaller changes that can have the biggest impact! There are quite a few great online tools and companies that specialise in calculating your impact and helping with a customised action plan. We’d recommend checking out Climate Action Toolbox to help you on your way.

Tip 2. Prevent

Get rid of instances that cause waste in the first place.

• Use reusable containers and KeepCups. A lunchbox library at work and a personal KeepCup will help cut out single use plastics on your coffee or lunch runs.
• Use glass jars to refill the office kitchen. Not only do glass jars look great, they are infinitely recyclable, reusable and refillable.
• Create a workplace culture that promotes and celebrates sustainability in a fun and respectful way with simple resources at hand to create ongoing habits.
• Replace paper towels in washrooms with air dryers or towels. Single use paper towels can not be recycled and take more energy to produce.
• Look for local products that are more sustainable. E.g. can you find a milk supplier that will refill glass bottles?

Tip 3. Reuse

Use waste for something else by cleaning, refurbishing or repairing it.

• Share leftover corporate catering with other staff. Don’t let food go to waste! Ensure left overs find their way to be enjoyed rather than ending up in the bin.
• Reuse binders, folders and corporate stationery.
• Organise a clothing swap day at the office to freshen up the wardrobe. We all love a spring clean and a clothing swap is a great way to find some gems and feel good about passing on your clothes you no longer wear.

Tip 4. Recycle

Turn waste into something completely new.

• Have a recycling plan and clearly identified bins that are easily accessible. Ensuring that everyone at work knows where the bins are and how to recycle properly is equally important. Rinse and squash all containers and leave the lids on all bottles and containers.
• Use printed paper for note-taking and sketches and print out your drafts on the unused side of old papers. As a creative agency we are good at sketching, doodling and jotting down ideas everywhere, so if there is a blank piece of paper it won’t be for long. By limiting the amount of office printing, you can help to cut down paper as well as save on ink!
• Try out an up-cycle station for old or surplus supplies. This way, before ordering a new item, you can check the up-cycle station first.

Tip 5. Recover

Turn your waste into energy.

• Have an office garden to use food waste as compost. By using all the food you buy and composting organic food scraps, tea and coffee grounds you can reduce food waste sent to landfill. Compost feeds the soil which in turn can help to grow and regenerate new edible plants. As an added bonus, gardening and being around plants helps improve your mood and can reduce stress, so taking a moment to take out the compost or do some weeding will help you in the day. Win-win.
• Organise a beach or trail clean up day. Not only can this be great for team morale and an excuse to get you outside, but you get the feeling of reward for doing good for the environment and your community.
• Have an e-waste station to collect used electronics and drop these off at a TechCollect site. Old phones, hard drives, cables and electronics can accumulate over time and end up in the too hard basket. By creating a central e-waste station in the office, it makes it easy to repurpose and recycle.

We know change doesn’t happen overnight but with simple steps in the right direction we collectively can make a difference. Above and beyond applying these learnings in our own workplace, we’re proud to use our resources, marketing and campaign expertise to activate others.

If you’re interested in checking out another project we’ve volunteered our time toward that helped spread great ideas – check out our TEDxPipitea case study.