Is it possible to work from home and do this environmentally friendly? Yes, of course! There are quite few things that you can adjust in your own home to live more sustainably! We’ve listed 10 tips that will help you will achieve less CO2 emissions with your work, you will be more economical with raw materials and you will have a better working environment at home for better results! Sustainable job board Greenjobs.nl lists the options for sustainable working from home for you!
10 Tips to work sustainably from home
1. Prevent stealth use!
In other words, remove all plugs of devices that you are not using at a certain time from the socket. Think, for example, of a laptop that is 100% full, or the kettle that you are not currently using. Do you only want to make one cup of tea? Do not fill the kettle completely full! This greatly reduces your energy consumption.
2. Can the heating at home be lowered by a degree?
Then do this, this will save you up to €100 per month on your gas bill! Or turn off the radiators when you're not working from home. And on very cold days you can put on your thickest sweater. Another solution is to wear a warm sweater or other warm clothing more often so that the heating can be a degree lower. Every year there is even the Warm Sweater Day on 11 February! Participating is simple and the heating can be lower!
3. Place plants in your workspace, plants make people happy!
In addition, it improves the quality of the air in the room. Have you heard of adopting a plant? In Haarlem, for example, there is a plant shelter where they receive houseplants that can no longer stay in their original home. There are now plant shelters all over the Netherlands and we have spotted a handy overview for you on Mevrouw Montstera's website so that you can find a plant shelter near you. Another tip is to look for a second-hand plant on Marktplaats, they have a search category for house plants and so you can easily look for a nice second-hand sustainable house plant!
Didn't pass at the plant shelter or on Marktplaats, but do you want sustainable house plants? You have come to the right place at Sprinkl! Organic Garden Plants Sustainable Houseplants are delivered fresh to your home here. Wide choice, 100% non-toxic and fresh from the grower.
4. Sometimes have job meetings while walking.
Did you know that exercise helps to activate your brain? Greater chance of better ideas! A walk around the block in the park does people good! It prevents you from sitting in front of your laptop all day, so it's good for body and mind.
5. Can a phone call be made without video calling?
Then be sure to do this. In Zoom this saves you 90% on data! In other words, less CO2 emissions. And clean your mailbox every now and then. All that data is stored in large data centers that consume a lot of energy.
6. Turn off unnecessary lights.
Leaving the light on unnoticed seems very harmless, but about 14 percent of your energy consumption is spent on lighting. So please turn off lights in other rooms.
7. Change your web browser and use Ecosia instead of Google!
B Corp Ecosia is a sustainable search engine that donates 80% of its profits to WWF that works to protect the rainforest. We use the profits we make from your searches to plant trees where they are needed most. Install the free browser extension and plant trees with every search. The revenue from the advertising costs is profit for Google, for Ecosia it is a means of greening the planet and planting trees. Team Greenjobs.nl has been browsing with Ecosia for years to full satisfaction!
8. Choose a sustainable internet provider and sustainable hosting.
Have you ever considered whether your provider is sustainable? It is equally difficult to find out whether you have a sustainable internet provider, KPN is currently the most sustainable internet provider in the Netherlands.
Entrepreneur and do you have a website? Then choose sustainable web hosting! Your website runs on servers, and servers again cost a lot of energy. Sustainable hosting is therefore possible when a hosting provider uses green sustainable energy. Below is a handy list:
Greenhost, green and sustainable web hosting, from small and simple websites to large complex projects with multiple VPS's. That is the basis of Greenhost.
Naturally! Hosting & Security, they have opted for green energy and CO2 compensation in collaboration with Trees4all. At Natural! Hostin & Security is your website completely climate neutral!
GreenGeeks, Your GreenGeeks account will have a positive energy footprint on the environment as with wind energy credits they will replace three times the amount of energy your website consumes.
Dutch Coding Company, Dutch Coding Company is the first in the Netherlands with climate positive hosting. Their servers run on green energy and they plant a tree for every month of hosting they purchase.
To be fair, Greenjobs.nl itself has yet to make the switch, but that is planned!
9. Distinguish private life and work.
You do this, among other things, by having a fixed workplace. Do you work in the kitchen? Then, when you have finished working, sit somewhere other than in the same chair.
10. Don't forget to take a lunch break and take time for lunch.
You also do this at work, so why not at home? Take a short walk or get a vegan sandwich or something delicious from B Corp Too Good To Go. This way you put your work aside for a while and you can go back to work with full courage. Put reminders in your calendar to stick to this and block time in your agenda for a well-deserved break and a nice lunch.
We just mentioned Too Good To Go, don't you know Too Good To Go? This is a super fun app with which you can order food from entrepreneurs in your area who have food left over at the end of the day. In this way you prevent food that is still good from disappearing in the trash, and you help to prevent food waste. It works very easily! Download the app, log in and start saving delicious products that your local entrepreneur has left at the end of the day. At Greenjobs.nl we are fans of Too Good To Go and we often order food from local entrepreneurs!
With these tips and tricks you ensure a work environment at home that is good for yourself and good for the world and some tips are even good for your wallet! Do you have any more tips Greenjobs.nl can share? Let us know by sending an email to info@greenjobs.nl!
Are you ever ready for a different work environment besides working from home? Then read our blog about 'Sustainable Hotspots throughout the Netherlands' for more inspiration near you!
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