Winter is no longer coming, it is officially here. I should know because I've been consistently freezing in the office for the past couple of weeks. As much as I love my woolly jumpers, it is not the "ugly Christmas sweater" season yet.
I get where this is coming and I applaud our company for trying to save energy and keep the planet Earth happy, but they don't need to recreate the set of Frozen over here in order to do that!
As with every subject, I get most of my knowledge from TV. Saving energy in the office is no different, as my vast research comes mostly 30 Rock. If you're a fan of Tina Fey, you'll remember two 30 Rock episodes during the NBC Green Week that were dedicated entirely to educate the viewers on a sustainable office etiquette. With cameos from David Schwimmer as Greenzo, NBC's environmental mascot, who teaches us to not to leave our computers running all night and the environmental godfather Al Gore who stops by to change light bulbs; I now consider myself a sustainability expert.
I don't intend to suggest that my office needs a green mascot to remind us to save energy (although I'd volunteer for any costume job!), but how about a Green Warden who like Kenneth the Page would be put in charge of reducing carbon footprint in their department. One of us nominated to be a green officer would have to regularly check that their team is not wasting energy and motivate everyone to come up with more sustainable ideas. I just got one - burn the office paper for heat! Ok, it's not the best one, but at least I gave it a go.
We already have prizes for the tidiest tea point, why not extend it to the most environment-friendly department? We're lucky to be working in a creative industry, I bet that by promising us some sweets and booze in the end of the month, we'd come up with a ton of ground-breaking ideas. The mere possibility of getting a prize makes me want to stop doing what I'm doing right now and enter the challenge.
Talking of ideas, I just got another one. What's the most ultimately British thing? (A foreigner asked rhetorically) Cuppa tea! Did you know that a kettle uses up more energy than a TV? I constantly remind that to my housemate, each time this lazy Brazilian boils the water and forgets to make the tea afterwards. If one person volunteers to make the tea for everyone in a pod, the kettle can get its well-deserved rest and eat up less energy. Can you think of more simple solutions like that?
Let me end on with a quote from Al Gore: "Everything must be recycled, even jokes. Quiet! A whale is in trouble - I have to go!"