24 easy ways to make your building green

This week's Earth Day has prompted a flurry of PR activity and one of the more interesting of these offerings comes from the US-based Building Owners and Managers Association. It has suggested 24 ways to cut the environmental footprint of office buildings, touching on water conservation, landscaping, recycling and education. Greening office buildings is crucial in the quest towards reducing carbon emissions. BOMA says that carbon emissions from office buildings make up nearly 20 per cent of all emissions in the US, and in London, mayor Ken Livingstone estimates that businesses produce nearly a third of the city's carbon emissions. BOMA's 24 tips are listed in full below:

Conserve Water
1. Install low-flow aerators, which simply screw on to bathroom taps and can be purchased for under a fiver.
2. Insert water displacement devices to limit the amount of water used in the toilet tank.
3. Monitor activities with sensors, such as motion-sensor taps and cooling tower sensors.
4. Implement 'dry' cleaning methods. Using a broom, squeegee or dry vacuum cleaner as 'dry' instead of 'wet' cleaning can save gallons of water.
5. Reduce water pressure.
6. Reset hot-water thermostats to the lowest setting possible.
7. Turn off hot-water heaters while the building is unoccupied.

Landscape Sustainably
8. Create a landscaping programme that makes use of indigenous plants and conserves water.
9. Add composting to your landscape maintenance plan.
10. Use drip irrigation or soaker hoses, which use less water than sprinklers.
11. Schedule an annual review of your property's irrigation system.
12. Harvest rainwater to water your building's grounds.

Reduce, Re-use and Recycle
13. Work with vendors who have recycling programmes in place.
14. Establish disposal methods to discard electronics and hazardous waste.
15. Use coreless paper products.
16. Ensure that your janitorial service uses green cleaning products.
17. Ensure windows and skylights are clean to allow in optimal daylight.
18. Encourage tenants to turn off equipment after hours.
19. Encourage tenants to use Energy Star equipment.
20. Develop a recycling programme for everything (not just paper) -- lighting, plastics, metal, glass and cardboard.

Communicate and Educate
21. Institute an energy-awareness programme.
22. Encourage tenants to institute work from home policies to reduce workplace energy consumption.
23. Create an electronic green newsletter to send to tenants periodically.
24. Encourage tenants and building personnel to use environmentally-friendly modes of transportation.

Related Links

• SmartPlanet