It would definitely benefit my employers to implement more environmentally friendly practices.  We are constantly scoffing at the waste, both in terms of trash and budget.  

We could reduce energy costs:

-Turning off the lights, or at least most of them.  There is no reason for the back offices and bathrooms to be lit all night.

-Unplugging chargers and equipment when not in use.

-Turning the air up when we leave.

-Turning off the TVs when we are not there!

We have more than enough opportunity to recycle.  We receive huge shipments of inventory everyday, leaving huge piles of boxes.  We pay someone to throw them away, it would be just as easy for this person to take them to a recycling center!  Similarly, we need to STOP buying styrofoam everything.  It would be very easy for us to start some sort of reusable cup system.  

The amount of merchandising and advertising material (mostly paper or cardboard) we throw away is absolutely unacceptable.  That problem goes way above my head to some corporate office.

I think that by encouraging all their stores to recycle and use energy-saving practices my company would be able to save an incredible amount of money, encourage other businesses to get on board, and it would also generate some incredible PR.  

Potential Benefit At Work

As I said in my original post, the plac

e where I work (which you can probably guess...) is incredibly wasteful.   

So here is a (rather small) pile of boxes.  This was on a Sunday, so its about 1/5 of its usual daily size.  All of our boxes are thrown in the dumpster.  

There are twelve desks, each of which has its own small trashcan.  Here's a typical one, full of discarded paper.

A sampling of our incredible inventory of styrofoam!  Generally accompanied by styrofoam plates and bowls, as well as an assortment of plastic cutlery.  Everyone uses multiple of these in a day, not bothering to label or re-use.  Its pretty standard to see someone pull one out of the cabinet, fill it with a drink of choice, throw it back, then throw the cup out.  

Okay, kind of a lame picture, but multiply this by about sixty and you'll get the idea.  This charger isn't plugged into anything but the wall.  Nothing is ever ever unplugged when not in use.  

Our thermostat which is always set at 68 degrees, even when we are closed.  Our office is primarily made of glass as well, which makes it pretty difficult to cool in the summer.  

Our two massive tvs which are also NEVER turned off, even when we leave for the night.  

                                                                                  

So here are the light switches

 that control the lights for the entire show room of our store, as well as the back.  As you can imagine, from the all cap label DONT TURN OFF, we never turn them off.  I don't think it is even possible to turn the lights off in my office, there is a switch but it doesn't do anything.  So yeah, all of our lights stay on 24/7.

Trash can full of brochures.  They updated the photos on the front, so we had to throw all the old ones away. . .