Are Employees Green at Work?

Sun recently sponsored a Harris Interactive poll on green behaviors in the workplace. Seems like employees are saying one thing and doing another:

• 92 percent of participants said they turn of their lights at home, whereas only 52 percent of workers turn off the light when they leave a room at work.


• 58 percent said they turn off computers at home when they are done using them, whereas only 34 percent does so at work.


• 57 percent of workers are using sleep mode for their home computers, but only 44 percent do so at work.

Of those polled, 73% said they would like their companies to be more environmentally friendly.

Maybe the thought is, "I want my COMPANY to be environmentally friendly. Me, on the other hand... I want to leave the lights on."

Or is that too cynical an approach? Maybe employees simply need gentle reminders? Or, perhaps they would like senior leadership to take the lead? If the CEO is turning off lights in the conference room, surely that trend will flow throughout.

Here are a few other stats:

• Leaving a computer on 24/7 can cost as much as $75 per year, PER COMPUTER.


• If the US's 81 million + office employees shut down computers and turned off lights like they do at home, they could remove enough carbon emissions to equal 6 million cars on the road.


• Unnecessary printing results in approximately $85 a year, per person, in ink and paper waste. How often does that second sheet with one line of print end up the waste bin?

An article on Sustainable IT suggests that the employees may simply not know what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to energy cuts. For example, many employees leave computers on at night believing that patches and updates are downloaded at night. Often, that is the company's policy, despite the availability of software that will 'wake up' a system for updates and then put them back into 'sleep mode'.

The answer seems to be a written company policy encouraging employees to take steps to reduce energy use, waste, and carbon footprint. Open the lines of communication so that employees understand procedures and that they are encouraged to make suggestions on saving. Have senior management take the lead and set the standards for behavior and the habits are sure to follow.