Inspired by the recent climate change meeting, more building owners and facility managers are looking into ways to do their part, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce their overall environmental footprint. At first, many building owners and managers may believe this is an impossible task. However, once they get started, they realize their actions can be meaningful in facing the challenge.  

Here are some little-discussed suggestions to get you started. Some are low-hanging fruit and can be accomplished quickly and with little investment. Others may take more time and cost more, but their long-term payoff can be significant.

Eliminate the Standard Outlet

We don’t want any more traditional power outlets in our facilities. Instead, we want smart outlets that can be turned on and off manually or automatically throughout a facility at specific hours. Why? One of the most significant energy users in the U.S. is what is called “idle electronics.” These are electronics such as copiers, computers, cellphone chargers, and monitors, which use electricity while in the “off” position. These consume as much energy each year as can be produced by 12 typical power plants.

Take a Bright Light Break

We’ve all encountered lights that go on and off based on movement. Walk into a restroom, and the lights go on. Once you leave, the lights typically stay on for about 15 minutes before they go off.  Now, we must take this a step further. Entire floors of a building must be movement activated. 

Say everyone on an office floor leaves at 6 pm. There is no reason for those lights to stay on for hours. If everyone leaves by 6, the lights should go off at 6:15.

Conduct a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Audit

Most building owners and managers are familiar with energy audits, water audits, even security and risk audits. Now we need to start conducting greenhouse gas emissions audits. Just like these other audits, a greenhouse gas emissions audit is designed to find where greenhouse gases are being emitted from a facility and, with this knowledge, eliminate or reduce the emissions. Often these emissions come from building mechanicals like HVAC units. Methane gas, which is detrimental to the environment, may be one of the gases being emitted.

Put a Dent in Disposable Cups

Globally, it is estimated that we throw away about 16 billion disposable cups every year. Not all of these cups are used in work areas, but a large number of them are. Many of these cups are coated with plastic and have plastic lids. The bad thing about this is that when tossed in the trash, they can live for years in landfills before degrading. But the good thing about it is that these cups can often be re-used with simple rinsing. Taking this extra step and re-using disposable cups – or switching to traditional cups - will help make a big dent in how many disposable cups end up in trash disposal centers.

Plastic Straws and Stirrers

Here is all we need to say about using plastic straws and stirrers: say no. Once again, these are invariably made of plastic, take years to disintegrate, and we can get by without them.  

Use Less Water

The days of limitless amounts of water, even in desert areas of the world, are fast ending. As they do, we are finding many ways to reduce consumption. In commercial facilities, the three best methods to reduce water consumption are installing native vegetation, which typically needs less water, re-fitting existing toilets to use less water, and installing waterless urinals. In many cases, installing waterless urinals such as these will result in the biggest reduction in water consumption of all the measures taken.

Klaus Reichardt is CEO and founder of Waterless Co, Inc, Vista, Calif. Reichardt founded the company in 1991 with the goal of establishing a new market segment in the plumbing fixture industry with water efficiency in mind. Reichardt is a frequent writer and presenter, discussing water conservation issues.  He can be reached at klaus@waterless.com.