Green Office Week Blogs

A Big 'Green Office Week' Thank You

Wed, 10 Aug 2011

Green Office Week would like to say a big thank you to everyone who got involved this year and helped to make it the best yet! Across the UK, Green Office Week supporters held events, blogged, tweeted and, most importantly, took action - taking practical steps to help the environment.

Hundreds of UK organisations got behind Green Office Week this year, including major public sector bodies, like HMRC and the Highways Agency, and large companies like Sainsbury, LV and Lloyds Banking Group. And let's not forget the hundreds of smaller offices up and down the country that make up so much of what Green Office Week is about.

A special thank you should go to our 120 Green Office Week Ambassadors, who were busy ‘spreading the word' in their workplaces and prompting colleagues, suppliers and partners to get involved in any way they could.

Ultimately, Green Office Week would not be possible without everyone's commitment and passion - so don't be modest: celebrate your efforts by sharing your pictures and thoughts on what you got up to via Facebook and Twitter.

And, make sure you enter 14th May 2012 in your diary, as plans for Green Office Week 2012 have already begun!

Be sure to keep an eye on the Green Office Week website and visit us on Facebook and Twitter for more information and updates.

Green Office Week's first ever Twitcam

Fri, 13 May 2011

On the first day of Green Office Week 2011 the team held their first ever live Twitcam. The Twitcam was broadcasted from the Green Office Week website (www.greenofficeweek.eu) and was presented by CSR expert, Nicky Amos. Nicky shared her experience with all those watching and answered tweets that came in.

The following questions are some of those that were tweeted in during the live broadcast and include Nicky's answers.

Why is Alistair McGowan involved?
He is a long standing green campaigner, patron of a charity called Trees for Cities, a great believer in bringing green into urban spaces and also workplaces. He has recently installed solar panels at home and has been involved In buying a strip of land near Heathrow with Greenpeace. He is just personally very motivated about being green. The podcast of the radio is available on the Green Office Week website.

What are the factors that influence people being green in the office?
It needs to start with someone! In our research, 24% of people said that were not encouraged to be green in the workplace. The advice is somebody HAS to start with new behaviours. If you have a good idea, it makes sense and is not going to cost the company anything, then go for it! You'll find this has a ripple effect of others around you, 1 action leads to another and you'll find it becomes standard practice.

Will us all walking to work tomorrow make any difference?
It will certainly make you feel better! Any journey that we can save is a single impact and benefit to us, as we are all finding now with fuel prices, it might even save you time in getting to work and make you feel slightly more relaxed.

What is happening at Avery for Green Office Week?
Avery has been sponsoring this campaign for 3 years now. They are doing some fantastic things from creating some really environmentally friendly products for their customers and working with them on these initiatives. The staff are really getting behind it and they are doing some great stuff, displaying posters, stickers and brainstorming ideas with recycling and travelling. They already do lots of teleconferencing across Europe. They hope this spurs on other companies to follow suit.

What percentage of my Office Electricity bill is due to equipment being left on?
We all know offices fall into the habit of leaving equipment on standby, such as printers and monitors and even lights. We all see them when driving by and no one is in the building. At least 10% of the energy bills can come from these sort of things being left on!

In a time of cut backs are you finding that CSR is being pushed further down peoples priorities list?
CSR stands for (Corporate Social Responsibility). Certainly in my own experience, this is not the case, it's been around for a good 10 years or more, and it has been so entrenched, that for graduates joining businesses it's in the top 3 criteria of what they think about. It's really important to customers as well, they are keen to find out they are meeting their responsibilities. 47% of people are more green than they were a year ago!

How can I convince a manager or colleague who is simply not interested in being Green at work?
There are plenty who ask this question! There are always voices who say "this is not a priority". A key thing is to say that you are not trying to make any fundamental changes. In these current times, its not always easy to pay lots out up front, but there are lots of incremental things you can do that pay off over time. Cut down using paper, purchasing items less frequently etc. Just be more frugal in the workplace, many bosses right now wont argue that saving money isn't a focus!

We are a fairly green office, do you have any innovative ideas that are out of the ordinary to grab our employees attention?
One that came to my attention recently was a stationery amnesty. So, get together all the stationery that has been horded over the last months or years in and on people's desks. Just ask people to put the excess in one place. One person admitted to having 6 staplers!! Perhaps think about creating a staff reward scheme? Have an office eco champion! Or maybe a visual idea of reminding people of their carbon footprint. They piled all of the paper they consumed in a year and put it in reception, so everyone that came through had a strong visual impact of just how much we use. This they then took away and spoke about and still remember!

Is it too late for me to take part?
No it isn't, you can log on and register at any time to get involved, we'd love to have your support!

What else is happening this week?
Everyday we have new topics, so go visit the website. One is energy, another on purchasing, another transport and even a day dedicated to opportunity, thinking outside of the box, what difference can this make "green" to the company? There is no one better than a staff get together to think about opportunities.

We do already have a CSR policy what advice would you give to a small business looking to try something different
Having an environmental policy is great start, it puts down on paper what is important to you and your business. I think one of the most important things is to make it real and action orientated. Get people together. See what you come up with. Increase your profile locally. Volunteer or lend your services to those organisations around that might be worth collaborating with?

If you weren't available for the live Twitcam you can watch it here now.

Get ready for Green Office Week

Wed, 04 May 2011

eFIG the industry organisation for interior landscapers - are again promoting GOW and offering ideas around using plants to be greener.

It’s here, Green Office Week. What will you do to make a difference? Here we’re publishing a plant idea for every day of the week ….. why not set up a daily email for your customers to send these out one at a time?

Or maybe you want to take it further and send a small plant to all your contacts and potential contacts with a parcel label attached naming all the benefits?

Green (Living) Review

Thu, 28 Apr 2011

Green Office Week is bigger and better than ever!

Green Office Week (9-13 May 2011) will be bigger and better than ever.

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Green Office Week, originated and organised by Avery Dennison, is this year in it's (3rd) year and Avery hope it to be bigger and better than ever so far.

Staffordshire University

Mon, 25 Apr 2011

Green Office Week 9th - 13th May

The ECD Green Group is working towards making our department a more environmentally-friendly place to work in as part of the Green Impact Universities scheme.

With Green Office Week approaching in a few weeks, I thought this would be a good time for us to trial out a reduction in waste bins in the office. Currently the bins are emptied (with plastic liner) on a daily basis and then replaced with a new liner, regardless of how much rubish it is in it. So Linda suggested we try sharing bins instead. Understandably we need to make sure we have enough so some planning will be needed.

View blog...

Office Supplies News

Mon, 14 Mar 2011

Green Office Week is back!

Spring into action this May and help encourage your company to think and act green. Now in its third year, Avery hopes this Green Office Week (9-13 May 2011) will be bigger and better than ever. But to do this, they need you to take part.

Click here to read more...

B2B Marketing

Mon, 14 Mar 2011

EVENT MARKETING: What are the marketing opportunities behind themed weeks?

Case Study: Green Office Week

Green Office Week has been running for three years and was originally nothing more than the germ of an idea from a former employee of office products manufacturer Avery Dennison. Later developed by Gregg Corbett, Avery's marketing director, the week's original aim was to help people find ways to bring their green habits into the workplace and to promote sales of Avery's eco-friendly products.

Click here to read more...

National office survey finds managers failing to go green

Tue, 22 Feb 2011

The YouGov research, commissioned by office products manufacturer Avery, found only a third of those surveyed think their managers are clear about the steps that can be taken.

The poll, carried out for this year's Green Office Week, also found that only 17% of respondents think their office is 'very or completely green', with more than a quarter, 28%, saying it is 'still not very green'.

A number of factors prevent people being greener in the office. A quarter of office workers (24%) highlighted a lack of encouragement, 19% said there was too much effort involved, 18% referred to cost and 16% blamed a lack of information on how to go about it.

Click here to read more.

Give Yourselves a Pat on the back!

Wed, 17 Nov 2010

Green Office Week is celebrating after winning at the prestigious Green Business Awards, the UK's most comprehensive award show for environmental business.

We joined other household names such as Stagecoach, BT, Findus and M & S who were also recognised for pioneering environmental efforts.

Avery won the ‘Green champions (customers)' category for its innovative Green Office Week initiative which encourages office workers across the UK to take practical steps to help the environment.

Never one to blow our own trumpet, here is what the judges said about us "Avery have taken an industry leadership position, campaigning with evangelical zeal for office workers to think about green issues and take action."

For those of you new to the event, Green Office Week has run annually since 2009 and offers realistic guidance on the small things we can all do to make a difference at work.

While the award recognises Avery's achievements in creating Green Office Week, the event simply would not be possible without involvement from customers and our committed Green Ambassadors who take part in activities and ensure the event is a success. From everyone involved in Green Office Week - THANK YOU.

For those of you, who did not participate this year, don't panic! There is still time with next year's Green Office Week taking place between 9 and 13 May 2011. For hints, tips and information keep an eye on the Green Office Week website.

Don't be shy. Feel free to comment and get in touch with your ideas and thoughts ahead of 2011's event.

Is the Grass any Greener?

Wed, 03 Mar 2010

As temperatures across the country continue to fluctuate, the Green Office Week team has been taking the ‘green thermometer’ into UK workplaces to measure environmental awareness.

Working with polling company OnePoll, we’ve been asking office workers how green they feel at their desks, what their companies already do, and how they want to make a difference.

We’ll be releasing the surprising statistics very soon, so keep an eye out on this website and in the media to see how green your white-collared colleagues really are.

Green Office Week Ambassadors

Thank you to all the office workers who have so far put themselves forward as Green Office Week Ambassadors.

You’ll be raising your profile at work, whilst spreading the word about key environmental issues such as recycling, pollution and green products.

Look out for your resource pack being sent very soon and keep your part of the Green Office Week website updated with photos and blog posts. We can’t wait to see them!

Make sure you follow our Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/greenofficeweek for lots of great green hints and tips, and keep checking our new interactive website in the next few weeks for lots more assistance and ideas.

Green Office Week is back!

Thu, 25 Feb 2010

Back for its 2nd year Green Office Week (GOW) aims to encourage us to take as much care of the environment in our working life as we do at home.

Last year Green Office Week was a massive success. It raised people's awareness of how you can help the environment by making a few changes in the workplace. By simply bringing some of your natural home-life habits into work you can make a real difference to your companies' impact on the environment.

It also highlighted that companies weren't just saving the environment but saving money. In this current troublesome economic climate this has been the real ‘eco' topic on peoples mind in the last year. GOW hopes that we can help you do even more to save the environment and money in 2010!

This year GOW will see us rejuvenating some of last year's activities such as the Dummies for Green office guide and this website... but we plan to make it bigger and better!

We're also looking at capturing people's imagination in other ways too. Check out the Bikes and radio sections on this site. Plus for the first time we're introducing you to some every important people - Our Green Office Week Ambassadors!

These are people from all types of commercial and industrial backgrounds that will share a lot of the same thoughts and experiences as you on ‘green' issues. They will be here to help you to help your office become a greener place.

We spend most of our waking hours at work... if we're not being green while we're here then we're definitely not doing enough to help the environment! So much more can be done and we want to kick-start your campaign for a greener office.

Let's make a difference together and use GOW as an incentive to ensure we're doing all we can at our workplace!