Earth Day Every Day: Easy Sustainability Tips for Remote-Friendly Workplaces

Let’s be honest—most corporate sustainability pledges sound great on Earth Day… and then get recycled faster than an empty LaCroix can. But being green shouldn’t be a one-day trend or a 60-slide PowerPoint. It’s about creating habits that stick—and making the workplace part of the solution, not the problem. 

The good news? You don’t need rooftop solar panels or a compost bin next to the coffee machine to make a difference. Especially if your workforce is remote. 

Here are some low-effort, high-impact sustainability tips that businesses (and their remote teams) can put into practice—not just on Earth Day, but all year long.

Skip the commute, save the planet

Remote work isn’t just good for morale—it’s great for the environment. Eliminating a daily commute slashes carbon emissions, reduces fuel consumption, and spares your team from awkward breakroom small talk. 

Pro tip: Want to see how much you’re saving? Multiply the average employee’s 20-mile roundtrip by 250 workdays. That’s thousands of car miles—and gallons of gas—avoided per person. 

Go digital (no, really)

Still printing agendas for your Zoom calls? Time to break up with your printer. Embrace digital documents, e-signatures, cloud storage, and collaboration tools. Your paper budget (and a few trees) will thank you. 

Bonus: No one misses “that one guy” who always hogged the only working stapler. 

Encourage energy-smart home offices

Remote work puts more control in your team’s hands—literally. Help them make energy-efficient choices by encouraging: 

• Switching to LED lightbulbs 

• Unplugging devices when not in use 

• Setting thermostats smartly (and dressing like it’s actually the season) 

Consider offering green office stipends or including energy-efficiency tips in onboarding materials. 

Reduce, reuse, reimagine

Encourage employees to rethink their home office supplies. Refillable pens. Recycled notebooks. Repurposed jars as pen holders. Even better—use what you already have. (Yes, that half-used notepad from 2019 still works.) 

Companies can model this too. Choose sustainable vendors, minimize packaging when shipping equipment, and ditch the swag that ends up in a landfill three days later. 

Ditch the swag. Invest in purpose.

Speaking of swag—skip the branded frisbees and plastic tumblers. Instead, invest in experiences or contributions that matter: a tree planted per contractor, carbon offset purchases, or donations to environmental causes. 

Minimalism is in. Waste is out. 

Embrace asynchronous everything

Liveops knows that asynchronous work is a secret weapon—not just for productivity, but for the planet. Fewer scheduled calls mean less energy usage, less screen time, and more autonomy for your team. 

Plus, when people aren’t glued to Zoom 24/7, they’re less likely to have five devices on at once (which is a win for energy conservation and mental health). 

Lead with sustainability, not just savings

When you build sustainability into your operating model, you don’t just save money—you show your values. Clients and employees notice when you walk the walk. 

And we’d know. 

Liveops is proof that sustainable business works 

At Liveops, our 100% remote model reduces carbon emissions by eliminating the need for physical contact centers. We don’t lease massive office space. We don’t waste energy powering empty buildings. And we don’t ship pallets of printer paper to dozens of breakrooms. 

Instead: 

• We’ve avoided nearly 1,400 tons of CO₂ emissions by eliminating daily commutes 

• We’ve reduced energy usage by more than 75% compared to traditional brick-and-mortar call centers 

• We’ve diverted an estimated 13.6 tons of waste from landfills—because less paper, less packaging, and fewer buildings means a smaller footprint 

Sustainability isn’t a side project—it’s built into how we operate. 

Keep it simple. Keep it remote. Keep it sustainable. 

This Earth Day, let’s move beyond reusable coffee mugs and office recycling bins. The future of work is flexible, remote—and sustainable by design. 

Looking for a contact center solution that puts purpose into practice? Let’s talk.