Is Your Office Green?

Is Your Office Green?

It is the trend these days to make your office green. Even if you work from home in web design or a similar type of work, if you have an office or work in the living room you’ll be inside a lot of the time, so it’s important that your work environment is green. Sustainability is about more than saving the earth’s resources or even making it a more pleasant place to be. It touches each one of us at a personal level.

If the environment is not clean and green, the air you breathe is not going to be healthy. If you don’t breathe healthy air, you won’t be healthy either. At the very least you’ll feel tired and lethargic much of the time. By making your office green, you’ll be doing a good thing for your own health as well as for the environment you live in.

Having a green office can be simple. Adding some greenery in the form of pot plants helps to add more oxygen to the air and so it is healthier for you.  Having a growing plant or two to look at also has a positive effect on people. Studies have shown that people work more productively when there are plants around them.  So if you want to become more productive, add a plant – or three.

Natural lighting is another positive element as far as going green is concerned. Being under fluorescent lighting or even LED lighting all day long is not good for us. It emits what is called blue light, which tends to interfere with sleep patterns. People who work from home late into the evening or who take work home with them to do at night are at risk of having poor sleep patterns.

Turning the computer off at least an hour before you go to bed will help you to sleep better. Using natural daylight during the day instead of being under artificial light is much better for your health.  If you have a home office, make sure it is well lit with large windows so you don’t have to turn the light on during the day.  If glare is a problem, you can get monitors that do not reflect light.

People who work from home are able to take their office – or at least their work – outside where they can reap the benefits of fresh air and sunshine. If your computer screen is not visible outside, change to one that is back lit. Otherwise, schedule time to go outside regularly during your work day. Even five minutes break outside every so often will keep you healthier. Let the sun on your skin during that five minutes and you’ll be even healthier.