Green Office Blog

Continuing our series exploring Bioregional’s ten principles of One Planet Living, sustainable travel and transport takes the spotlight this month.  Can business travel and transport ever be sustainable? 

Considering that one will always leave a footprint, be it from the journey itself or the waste produced along the way, is sustainable travel achievable?  For us, sustainable travel means making conscious decisions about the travel requirements that we can control. 

Many businesses have transport needs that are essential for the day-to-day running of the business which cannot be completely controlled such as using a courier for deliveries.  However, staff business travel can certainly be controlled or managed in such a way that it has the least impact on the environment as possible.

Written by Chasthi Grant in collaboration with Riaan van Rensburg

Hello again and green greetings!

 Let’s recap from our previous blog post, Digitization in the Banking Industry…

• Green Office’s approach understands the digitisation end-goal, driving print to zero, entrenching and guiding the business towards a paperless utopia.
• Green Office has conducted varying sets of decompositions within the banking industry.
• Green Office will identify, assess, conduct user interviews, present the findings and advise the most sustainable solutions.

Continuing our series exploring Bioregional’s ten principles of One Planet Living, this month we will be looking at the culture and community principle.  The importance of instilling a culture of sustainability within staff and the community within which businesses operate cannot be overstated enough.  Bioregional’s culture and community principle encourages businesses to nurture local identity and heritage, empower communities and promote a culture of sustainable living.

A company interested in pursuing One Planet Living instills a culture of sustainability amongst staff, customers and suppliers.  Additionally, they strive to assist the community within which they operate financially and non-financially, such as donating staff time to a community project or undertaking a renovation project at a local school.

Written by James Tooley in collaboration with Wilma O'Neill

What are the main pain points for retailers when looking at managing their print environment?

When it comes to your print environment there are a lot of things to consider, but in retail there’s not always time to:

• Look for the best price
• Manage your hardware, contracts and stock
• While managing a store and trying to cut costs, you still need to find a way to be more sustainable.

Cost recovery in any business is essential. In law firms, it’s even more important to ensure that billable items land on clients’ invoices. Disbursements are often either manually tracked and billed, or it is isn’t recovered 100%. (This is an opportunity lost to generate an income for your business!)

Our preferred software for printing, telephony management and cost recovery is PaperCut.  Not a lot of companies know that PaperCut offers telephony billing, through an add-on module called, Revoco.  We’ve worked with various law firms of different sizes and for us, this software is a must.

Continuing our series exploring Bioregional’s ten principles of One Planet Living, the spotlight this month is on Land and Nature.  In having an academic background focused on the natural environment, this principle is close to my heart and promotes the protection and restoration of land and marine systems for the benefit of people and wildlife. 

The One Planet goals for land and nature include:

• To have a positive impact on natural ecosystems and prevent harm, from extraction to production, and retail;
• To source materials responsibly and eliminate the use of materials associated with the destruction of natural habitats; and
• To make a positive contribution to local biodiversity.

This must be one of the most powerful talks I have attended as part of the EQ Entrepreneur Network Durban South Africa.

Richard’s talk was filled with valuable insights and statistics on the biggest health epidemic of the 21^st century: DEPRESSION.

I was amazed by this South African man who had accomplished so much. Richard’s credibility is backed up with an incredible track record where he has worked with some of the world’s best athletes and businesses.

The talk was split into two parts, the ‘cause of stress’ and ‘how to be exceptional’.

Hello Again and Green Greetings!

In our last blog engagement, we explored the “Typical challenges experienced in the Banking industry”.  We touched briefly on digital banking trends and the way forward for the banking industry following the challenges experienced from a Green Office perspective.

Digitization is the new buzz word within the FinTech industry with automation, efficiency and customer experience as the main drivers.  Within the banking industry the partnership between strategy and technology create a perfect platform for digitization.  The majority of customers are techno savvy and demand more streamlined processes from their banking service provider.  Their time is valuable, and they challenge the banking industry to move towards digital platforms or face the risk of losing their business to more progressive banking service providers.

Companies’ investment of R1.5 million on 4 Devices, could have potentially been R350k!

You really need to know and understand the rules of engagement of the Office Automation and Asset Financing World, as being aware of the details can possibly save you millions!

In our world and our interaction with clients, we have accepted that the printing and print related contracts, are placed at the bottom of the food chain.  As specialist in our field, we believe that C levels in businesses should be aware of what’s going on. This information is not always filtered through the correct channels of the organisation, to ensure that contracts and pricing are properly reviewed, before it is signed.

Continuing our series exploring Bio regional’s ten principles of One Planet Living, the spotlight this month is on equity and local economy.  This principle is based on creating “safe, equitable places to live and work which support local prosperity and international fair trade”.  

The One Planet goals for equity and local economy include:

• To ensure diversity and equality of opportunity across gender, race, age, sexual orientation and disability.
• To create a vibrant and resilient economy where a significant proportion of money is spent locally.
• To pay all employees a living wage and avoid large income gaps.
• To ensure pensions and investments are managed responsibly.
• To conduct international trade fairly and without exploitation.