Work/Life Balance
Are you the office environmental offender?Green grief?Do you consider yourself environmentally aware? SUN WIRE SERVICES |
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Are you the chief recycling officer of your household? What about at work?
Results of a North American survey by Xerox Corporation to measure environmental consciousness in the workplace, found that work colleagues may have some strong objections to those who don't walk-the-green-talk at the office.
Almost half (46%) of Canadian respondents said the No. 1 office environmental pet peeve was leaving the lights on in unused offices, followed closely (45%) by mindless printing, resulting in abandoned pages at the printer.
A review of the other top office pet peeves included; excessive use of paper products like plates and cups (43%); printing single-sided instead of double-sided documents (41%); leaving PCs on overnight when not in use (36%) and pollution associated with commuting (36%).
"Environmental awareness starts at home for most people, and the workplace needs to do more to catch up. If you look at what the survey revealed, becoming 'green' at work can actually be quite simple," says Patricia A. Calkins, vice-president of environment, health and safety at Xerox. "It's not only the right thing to do for our world, but it's also good for business and morale."
The survey, which polled 1,569 office workers across the U.S. and Canada, revealed that U.S. women (91%) consider themselves more eco-conscious than their male counterparts (86%).
In Canada, age had a noticeable effect on environmental consciousness -- older workers (aged 50+) ranked higher in environmental awareness than their younger colleagues (aged 18-24). Of the older set, 43% rated themselves "extremely" or "very green" compared to only 35% of the younger generation.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
The survey also revealed some key differences in environmental attitudes between American and Canadian office workers. Of note:
96% of Canadians consider themselves "somewhat green," and 88% consider their workplace to be the same.
86% of Americans consider themselves "somewhat green," but only 66% consider their workplace to be the same.
Almost double the number of Canadians (46%) are frustrated with colleagues that do not print on both sides of the page than
Americans (24%).
35% of Canadian office workers found excessive amounts of cover sheets for faxing/printing and having to store paper copies of
electronic files more annoying than their American counterparts (24%).
36% of Canadian office employees found lack of commuting options, such as public transport or carpooling frustrating, compared to only 21% of Americans.
Women proved to be the most diverse demographic when it came to environmental attitudes: only 21% of American female employees considered themselves "extremely" or "very green," a figure that was double in Canada (44%).
TOP 10 PET PEEVES
The top 10 environmental pet peeves among Canadian office workers:
1. Leaving the lights on in unused office space.
2. Mindless printing resulting in increased waste.
3. Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc.
4. Printing single-sided instead of double-sided.
5. Leaving computer on/not powering down when going home.
6. Traffic (lack of public transport options or carpools).
7. Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing.
8. Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter.
9. Storing paper copies of existing electronic files.
10. Lack of appropriate recycling facilities.
For smarter ways to green your office, visit http://www. xerox.com/about-xerox/citizenship/enus.html.
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