Having an environmentally friendly place of business can pay big dividends to both your bottom line and the rest of the world as a whole. Options such as commercial window tinting and airflow control can save you a lot of money and reduce your carbon footprint. A few of the easiest and most effective ways to make your building environmentally friendly are outlined below.

Commercial Window Tinting

One of the highest costs in maintaining a commercial space is keeping the temperature regulated. Air conditioning can be less effective if you have a lot of sunlight coming in, but that sunlight is also essential to employee health and morale. You can get around this problem by getting commercial window tinting on your building. Window tints help to filter out some of the sunlight, reducing the heat that gets into an office building and making cooling systems easier to run. At the same time, they still allow plenty of light and great views through, so your employees can have the best of both worlds.

Airflow Control

While it’s easier to control the flow of air in a residence than it is in a larger business, airflow is still something you should be aware of when you’re trying to improve your office energy usage. Any parts of the building which receive air conditioning should be sealed off as much as possible to prevent the cold air from escaping. This will reduce the load on your air conditioner. For areas without air conditioning, you can reduce the usage of fans by making sure that windows are open anywhere a cross breeze can be formed. This keeps the air moving naturally, which helps reduce heat without using a lot of electricity.

Green Roofs

If you own the top of your building and it gets a lot of sunlight, a green roof can help reduce your carbon footprint and insulate your building. A green roof is effectively a large garden which is grown on the top portion of your building. It improves air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide and provides insulation to keep your building cool in the summer. The roof can also be watered using grey water, which is water that has been used for another cleaning purpose, offering a chance to cut down on water consumption.

Go Paperless

You never realize how little paper you need until you put the pressure on yourself to reduce your consumption. By relying on electronic backups for files and decreasing paper usage, you can save a lot of money, reduce damage to the environment, and cut down on the usage of printers which add heat to a workspace. If you’re worried about losing access to certain files due to a computer crash of other catastrophe, consider using cloud storage so you always have a backup online.
These are just a handful of the great ways that you can reduce your energy consumption and create an environmentally friendly commercial building. These methods are inexpensive but very effective, offering the potential to reduce your energy usage and expenses dramatically.