April 28, 2008—A new North American survey just released by Xerox Corporation to measure environmental consciousness in the workplace found that work colleagues have some objections to those who don’t follow eco-friendly practices at the office.
Almost 40% of US respondents said their top office environmental pet peeve was mindless printing resulting in abandoned pages at the printer, followed closely by leaving the lights on in unused offices (37%).
The survey, for which Harris Interactive polled 1,569 office workers across the US and Canada, revealed that US women (91%) consider themselves more eco-conscious than their male counterparts (86%). Age differences were noted, as well: of US workers aged 18-34, 27% ranked themselves as “extremely” or “very green” versus the next generation of employees, aged 35-44 (17%).
The top ten environmental pet peeves among US office workers are:
- Mindless printing resulting in increased waste (40%)
- Leaving lights on (37%)
- Lack of recycling bins (33%)
- Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter (29%)
- Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc. (27%)
- Coworkers not recycling (27%)
- Coworkers not printing double-sided when they can (24%)
- Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing (24%)
- Having to store paper copies of existing, electronic files (24%)
- Leaving computer on and not powering down when going home (23%)
For smarter ways to “green” an office of any size, visit the Xerox Environment Web site.
