4 reasons why hiring a Virtual Assistant helps to protect the environment

We all want to do our bit for the environment, with the effects of climate change on our minds and businesses trying their best to come up with sustainable solutions, I thought now would be a good time to talk about why hiring a Virtual Assistant helps protect the environment.

When starting out in business, I always wanted it to be more of a help not a hindrance to the environment. Starting my Virtual Assistant business gave me the freedom to not only contribute towards reducing climate change but to protect the environment too.

Remote workers can greatly support the fight against climate change and protect the environment in many more ways than we first realise.

Remote working not only increases productivity, reduces business costs and promotes a healthier lifestyle it is also good for the environment, and let’s face it, the environment needs our help more than ever right now.

Here are my 4 reasons why hiring a Virtual Assistant helps to protect the environment:

Reduces Greenhouse gas emission and fossil fuel consumption

In my last blog, I talked about how no daily commute reduces greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel consumption, and air pollution.

The no commute is probably the most popular benefit of remote working. We don’t miss the hour-long drive in the morning and evening too and from work. The good news is not having a daily commute means we have a significant positive impact on the environment.

Cars emit a lot of pollutants that are bad for our planet, including carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and other matter such as dust and soot.

As Virtual Assistants work from home this means we also have a massive impact on fossil fuel consumption. The impact of fossil fuels is extensive, the burning of fossil fuels releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere which in turn, is a big contributing factor towards climate change and global warming. Transport is one of the main contributors, in the UK transport produced 27% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions alone.

Less Energy Usage

Offices can be costly to run when it comes to using energy, lots of staff and large office spaces can soon rack up a hefty energy bill. This is especially so when businesses leave energy-zapping technology running overnight such as printers and PC’s.

Fortunately for Virtual Assistants, because we work from home, we are more in control of the energy we consume. More often than not we only have ourselves to think of during the day and therefore keep the thermostat down using a woolly jumper to keep warm in the colder months. Also, if like me Virtual Assistants can switch to energy-saving lighting, make better use of natural lighting, recycle pretty much everything they use, and minimise the amount of waste produced much more efficiently than you can in an office with lots of staff to consider.

Less plastic wasted

When going into an office, staff tend to take packed lunches, usually grabbing prepacked sandwiches, snacks, and drinks all of which rarely end up recycled. However, using a Virtual Assistant means that this is reduced drastically as we use all our own cutlery, plates, and cups, and whatever plastic waste we do have gets recycled along with all the other home recycling items.

Less paper wasted

Virtual Assistants and Remote Workers in general produce minimal paper if any at all. We like to keep our costs down and love technology. We are avid users of software packages, apps, and trackers, which help enormously in reducing the need for paper and not to mention keeping your business running smoothly.

Office workers tend to print more than necessary, in fact, the average office worker prints up to 45 pieces of paper a day and two thirds of that are considered waste!

Working remotely also means that communication and meetings are handled online and electronically so there is no need for documents to be printed.

There you have it, hiring a Virtual Assistant will not only save you time and money it will help towards saving our planet too.

At Admin Made Easy we have taken our commitment one step further and joined Ecologi, a Gold Standard Environmental Organisation, where we now have our own forest, planting trees and help fund the world’s best carbon offsetting solutions. This means as a business we are taking real action against climate change.