If you know anything about sustainable living, the chances are that you’ve heard of something known as the three Rs – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The actual truth of the matter is that these have been extended to five Rs, with Rot and Refuse being added in recent years.

Now, if you run something like an SEO agency of other predominately digitally-based business, you’re probably wondering how these affect you. If you want to find out, continue reading about how you can implement the five Rs of eco-conscious living in the office.

  1. Reduce

Although it may seem obvious once you’ve finished reading this article, it’s generally extremely easy to reduce-your-use-of-consumable-items. Let’s take disposable plastic cups as a quick example.

These aren’t directly related to the day-to-day running of most businesses, but many offices have a water cooler with plastic cups in the lobby or break room. Rather than using these, reduce your waste by purchasing a nice stainless steel water bottle. It’s that easy.

  1. Reuse

Now, this one can be a little difficult to apply in the office, but there are still plenty of cases where it can be used. For example, if you’re a person who likes to take physical notes with a paper and pen, you could reuse scrap paper that has only been printed on one side. Over the course of a few months, you will likely end up saving kilos of paper.

  1. Recycle

Recycling is pretty self-explanatory, but it’s incredible just how many offices don’t offer any recycling facilities whatsoever. It’s really not that hard to place a few bins around your office to encourage recycling. On top of this, you could implement some sort of recycling or sustainability policy that encourages people to recycle when they’re at work.

  1. Refuse

Recycling is great, but it’s obviously better to not use things in the first place if they aren’t necessary. And that’s where the first “new R”, refuse comes into play. Instead of taking things and using them out of habit, take a second to think about whether or not you actually need them and, if you don’t, say no.

  1. Rot

Finally, Rot applies when all other avenues have been exhausted. Sometimes, it’s impossible to reduce, recycle, reuse, or refuse something. For example, apple cores and other food scraps are always going to be produced, no matter how careful you are.

If you’re finding that a lot of organic waste is ending up in the landfill bin, consider adding an office compost bin. Ask around to see if you have any keen gardeners amongst your employees who would be interested in taking compostable’s home to feed their plants.

Final Word

If you’re successful in implementing the five Rs of sustainability (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Rot, Refuse) in your office, you will immediately reduce your environmental footprint. In the modern world, businesses that care about the environment are preferred by many clients, so you might even see business increase. It’s certainly something worth highlighting on social media anyway.