The Environment and Work

Posted by Melissa Dylan Jul 16, 2008

During a temp job at the Federal Building in Honolulu, I fielded phone calls all day that went like this: “It’s too cold in here!” “It’s too hot in here!” “The air-conditioner is making too much noise!” “The air-conditioner isn’t working!”

Temperature in the workplace is a hot-button issue. No one can agree on how hot or cold it should be, and thermostats are often managed in one large control room for the whole building.

I say instead of trying to please everyone (impossible), building managers should strive to please the environment. In this building in particular there were more cold complaints than anything, and the air conditioners were kept running 24 hours a day, which everyone agreed was a waste of taxpayer money, if nothing else. If the machines were shut down at night and kept at a lower running temperature all day, it would have saved money and been good for the environment.

Another problem at this job was that the recycling bins were largely inaccessible, in the basement. Because of this, no one in our office bothered to recycle, and chose to throw everything in our rubbish bins where it would disappear overnight.

There were a few simple things that could have been done to remedy both situations, thus helping our environment and keeping the office “green.” Here are a few more suggestions in this week’s article.