08.01.2025
Mari Salmu, Rail Baltic Estonia sustainability expert
We paint the walls green and we become a green office. Unfortunately or fortunately, things don't work that easily. By painting the walls green, we would only get there so that we could engage in greenwashing.* by eliminating the consequences of the accusations.
As an organization, we have set a goal to obtain the Green Office label by the end of 2025, which means a systematic approach to reducing the environmental impact of the office's daily activities. The Green Office label is, on the one hand, recognition, but on the other hand, also an obligation to ensure that we map our impacts and create clear principles and plans to reduce them.
Today, the Green Office label or adherence to its principles has become a “new baseline” for a responsible organization. The next logical step from the Green Office label is to apply for the Responsible Business Label and implement environmental and quality management systems.
What exactly does this mean for us?
The Green Office Label application process is the first step in understanding the impacts of your daily activities and choices at an organizational level. The process involves mapping your environmental impacts and creating principles and an action plan to reduce those impacts.
Green office topics focus on the following areas:
- Efficient use of resources (including saving energy and water).
- Measuring and reducing greenhouse gas footprint.
- Waste sorting and waste reduction.
- Raising employee awareness and involving them in environmental activities.
- Promoting environmentally friendly mobility and procurement principles.
These activities can achieve several beneficial results: reduce operating costs, have a positive impact on society, and help employees make environmentally conscious choices.
What do we already have?
The physical conditions of our office provide a strong foundation for adhering to the principles of a Green Office. We are located in a LEED Gold certified building, which already has:
- Energy and heat saving solutions, including solar power park and geothermal energy.
- Lighting systems with automatic switching that reduce energy consumption.
- Water-saving faucets that help reduce water consumption.
- Bike storage and laundry facilities that encourage employees to cycle to work.
In addition, we have implemented an environmentally friendly waste sorting solution in the office and have also mapped the success of the sorting to see how we can improve it further.
Supporting employee health and well-being is also part of our human resources policy, for example, we offer employees health insurance and Stebby sports support, and there is fresh fruit in the office every Tuesday.
What next?
In 2025, we need to focus on agreeing on concrete principles, creating a footprint reduction action plan and practical guidance materials, and designing an employee environmental awareness and engagement program. In addition, we need to find smart and simple solutions for collecting the data needed to calculate the footprint.
Information about the Green Office Label and green offices can be found on the following page: What is a green office? — EKJA
* Greenwashing is the deliberate misleading of the consumer, influencing him to prefer a product or service in which a specific environmentally friendly aspect is highlighted. However, the not-so-green side of the product (the entire process versus one detail) is overlooked. Therefore, a situation may arise where a product has a more negative ecological footprint than an equivalent one, but the consumer does not know it.” (Source: Greenwashing — what is it and how to recognize it? | Bioneer)
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