DHL Supply Chain ensures millions of deliveries reach customers. What keeps them going? Part of it’s the perks they all love—especially the ones that bring them together and keep them healthy.
Want to see more customer success stories? Keep reading here.
Let’s face it: In the bustling world of office life, the month of December can sometimes be gloomy. As everyone hustles to meet end-of-year deadlines, the cold makes it harder to wake up and go in t morning. Fewer hours of daylight and Vitamin D deficiency can lead to chronic lethargy – or at the least, a persistent “meh” feeling.
For the creative Office Manager, however, the holiday season presents a unique opportunity to infuse a much-needed dose of cheer into the workplace. Against the drudgery of winter, the holiday spirit can act as a balm: sparkling lights, the spirit of giving… why not seize upon the chance to infuse a bit of cheer into the workplace?
First and foremost, celebrating the holidays is a powerful way to boost morale and foster a sense of community. End-of-year workloads can be heavy, but a festive atmosphere eases stress and promotes a more relaxed, collaborative environment as people wrap up work before vacation. Social events on the office calendar are also important to break up the routine, giving the team a chance to reboot so they can check off their remaining projects with energy.
With this in mind, here are eight ways to liven up the office for the holidays, courtesy of your friends at Bevi.
A little décor goes a long way to make the office more cheery. Remember when choosing decorations that it’s important to keep your office décor inclusive. Snowflakes and winter scenes foster a festive spirit without invoking any specific religious affiliation.
While traditional tinsel is made with a metallic coating that’s destined to rot in landfills, there are lots of small independent vendors selling recyclable alternatives. Incorporating poinsettias, strands of cranberries, and found greenery are also easy ways to add some much-needed reminders of nature, which can be much-appreciated in the dead of winter. If your office has even just a handful of craft-oriented employees, making holiday decorations together can be a great small-group bonding activity.
Lucky for you if crafts aren’t your thing — you can also outsource the whole thing. Known for their interior landscaping services, the company Ambius also provides holiday decorating services for businesses. They can provide a full range of decorations, from wreaths to lighting, all designed to fit the specific aesthetic of your office.
We all know music can be transformative. Have you ever been feeling out of it, put your favorite song on and noticed your mood improve trifold? When it’s dark so early and ever so cold outside, you can fight the lethargy by offering energetic beats in the breakroom.
Creating a collaborative office holiday playlist can be a great way to learn about your co-worker’s taste and inevitably provide some fun water-break banter. If your worried debate over which holiday song cover is better would spark conflict between your office’s resident music heads, you can instead lean on the analytics-driven holiday playlist that came out of a recent Spotify and LinkedIn collaboration. Apparently Michael Bublé really is popular.
Nothing makes people feel more invested in others than giving them the fuel that feeds them. What about adding a good-old fashioned potluck to your company’s calendar this holiday season? Not only are food-related activities guaranteed to be popular, a potluck is also a great way to learn about different cultures and foster a spirit of inclusivity. To ensure no one leaves hungry, consider assigning every department to bring either entrees, appetizers, or desserts, and run a quick survey of your employees to plan ahead to make sure you’re accommodating for dietary restrictions. No matter what, you’ll learn something about your colleagues – perhaps Kevin will surprise you and turn out to be an amazing chef when he’s not busy coding, or you’ll discover Pam’s hidden talent for Moroccan cuisine.
The wine tasting: an oenophile’s dream, and a sophisticated twist on the typical festive revelry. At a time when many of us are anxious to get on vacation, the wine tasting experience lets coworkers indulge in a little fantasy and imagine the luscious vineyards of France, California, or Italy. Imagine: the sound of clinking glasses and notes of oak and berry tantalizing the senses. Joyful, communal, and just a little indulgent – what better embodies the holiday spirit? Plus it’s interactive and educational, leaving everyone that participates more enlightened about their preferences.
Led by specialists in creating engaging and interactive team-building experience, the company Confetti leads wine tastings which can accommodate both remote and in-person workers. Just choose your company’s budget and input the addresses, and Confetti can have wine kits delivered to you for your next virtual or hybrid bonding event.
You know it already: the holiday season can be a time where people go overboard on drinking. One way Office Managers can encourage responsible consumption is by distributing drink tickets rather than offering a full open bar, a strategy that can subtly encourage moderation. Make sure you serve plenty of food at your office party: a well-fed crowd is less likely to overindulge in alcohol.
Also, offer plenty of enticing alternatives to alcohol. For a healthy alternative to alcohol, how about a sparkling water seltzer? Not to brag, but each Bevi machine comes with mix-and-match natural flavors, with the option to add electrolytes – a trick for extra hydration which can help ease any hangover.
A creative twist on holiday decoration, the game Secret Decors assigns each co-worker to secretly decorate another team member’s desk or workspace over the course of the holiday season. Employees get to step into the shoes of stealthy elves, brainstorming and executing a festive makeover and testing their knowledge of their co-workers’ tastes. Right before your office vacation, the elves will reveal themselves. It’s a clandestine operation of holiday creativity, inviting office workers to learn more about their assigned colleague. When decorating the space, remind your co-workers to respect one another’s privacy, and don’t be like Marc in Ugly Betty — the holiday season is no time for catty cruelty.
Organizing a food drive or volunteer trip is a great way to create a sense of purpose and togetherness, transcending the usual office dynamic. Research local volunteer opportunities and consider what would resonate most with your co-workers. If pooling funds for a company-wide donation is more your style, the watchdog organization Charity Navigator provides a comprehensive rating system for charities, making it easier for businesses to find reputable organizations. Their website allows you to search and filter charities based on various criteria, like cause, rating, size, and location, to help ensure a good match for your company’s values.
Creating a company-wide New Year’s Resolution Board where employees are invited to share their personal and professional aspirations is a great way to foster a sense of optimism and forward-thinking. More than mere decoration, a Resolution Board also serves as a conversation starter and community builder. As employees share their goals, whether it’s returning to the gym, improving work-life balance, or finally spending their ten minutes a day on Duolingo learning Spanish, they inadvertently contribute to a supportive network where colleagues can motivate and hold each other accountable.
That’s it – eight ways to liven up the office for the holidays. By incorporating some of these ideas, you can help beat the winter blues and ensure a warm start to the New Year, where everyone returns to the office having learned a little bit more about their co-workers.
Engaging in holiday festivities is not just about decorations or parties – it’s an expression of appreciation and care for employees. Plus, unlike the decorations, the effects aren’t just seasonal – when you’re encouraging team bonding and sparking creativity, the dividends are long-lasting.
Happy holidays from Bevi! Interested in more office tips and tricks? Check out our other blog posts.
Did you know your smart water cooler can do much more than dispense still or sparkling water?
Thanks to the thousands of internet-enabled Bevi machines installed across North America, we’re able to provide some compelling insights into popular flavor combinations, return-to-office habits, and even regional dispense trends. Here’s what we’ve discovered as we close in on the first quarter of 2023:
In past years, Lemon has claimed the number one spot for most popular Bevi flavor, and for good reason. Water with lemon has been a beverage staple for decades. A quick Google search for lemon water yields millions of results ranging from wellness websites touting its health benefits to videos of influencers integrating this two-ingredient beverage into their daily routines.
So, how did Peach Mango steal first place? It’s hard to tell, as both of these popular flavors are currently neck-in-neck for the top spot. One thing is for certain though, people seem to love the two all-star fruits that make up this cherished Bevi flavor. The combination of mellow peach with tropical mango is everything you need to dream of a beach getaway without leaving your office.
Will Peach Mango keep the number one spot for the rest of 2023? Or will another flavor rise through the ranks? Only time (and our dispense data) will tell.
In our 2023 Predictions blog post, we emphasized future workplace trends, including which days hybrid employees are heading to the office. Based on our recent dispense data, we can confirm that many businesses and employees consider Tuesday a favorite in-office day, with 24% of total Bevi dispenses occurring on this particular weekday.
So why are Tuesdays popular in-office days for hybrid employees?
For starters, not many people choose to come to the office on Mondays or Fridays. According to Kastle Systems, a company that provides building security services, only 30% of employees enter their company’s office on Mondays. LAZ parking has experienced similar numbers, with parking demand being much lower on Mondays and Fridays.
Additionally, some individuals consider this a culture shift. If more employees decide to come into the office on Tuesdays, more will follow as it leads to more in-person collaboration between coworkers, the ability to complete more synchronous tasks, and a greater sense of community amongst teams.
Since our rollout of flavor and enhancement mixing in September 2022, we’ve been awfully curious about flavor combination trends. When we analyzed our dispense data, one trend did stick out:
When present within a Standup 2.0 machine, our Immunity enhancement appears in 11 out of our 12 most popular flavor combinations.
So, why is that the case?
To begin with, our Immunity enhancement is clear and flavorless, so it’s easy to add it to any beverage without compromising the taste of our flavors. Plus, with the majority of North America still in the midst of cold and flu season, it’s not surprising that more Bevi users are reaching for a quick vitamin and mineral boost with their glass of water.
Still deciding if Immunity is a good addition to your Bevi machine? Check out this blog post where we talk more in-depth about the immune-boosting ingredients that make up this popular Bevi offering.
With 14% of total dispenses as of March 2nd, 2023, the Southeast region of the United States has been hydrating with Bevi the most this year, with the Mid-Atlantic region right on its heels.
But has the Southeast always been the hot hydration spot it currently is? Not quite.
Turns out that pre-pandemic, the Southeast was actually the region that accounted for the fewest number of dispenses. Yet every year since 2019, dispenses there have steadily risen, now to the point that it’s beating out perennial winners in the Northeast and Great Lakes. Now the question is: can it keep the top spot? And if so, will we see a corresponding spike in this region’s return to the office? Stay tuned.
As we look towards the warm spring weather and the return-to-office dynamic continues to evolve, we’ll be eagerly analyzing our dispense data in hopes of spotting other trends.
Are there other insights you’d like us to cover in the future? Please share your thoughts with us over on our LinkedIn!
*Bevi dispense data as of 3/2/2023
Since the start of the pandemic, the traditional workplace has been turned upside down many times over. The Great Resignation, endless Zoom meetings, a looming recession, and massive layoffs. What will happen next?
We gathered outside research and pulled dispense data from thousands of Bevi machines currently installed in offices and commercial spaces throughout North America to understand one question: What does the future of work look like?
Turns out water coolers can tell you more than the latest office gossip. Here are the three biggest trends we see continuing as we enter 2023:
The days of expecting employees to come into the office Monday through Friday appear to be firmly in the past. Instead of forcing employees back to the office full-time, businesses will continue to embrace hybrid models, looking for incentives to make the office more enjoyable when employees are there.
According to a McKinsey study, 52% of workers prefer a more flexible working model post-pandemic. Simply put, most employees are not interested in coming into the office five days a week anymore—and their Bevi machine usage patterns confirm it!
When you take a close look at machine dispense trends, it’s clear that people are working from home much more in general, with usage in residential apartment buildings reaching 121% of 2019 levels in September of 2022. Meanwhile, in-office usage has struggled to return to its pre-pandemic heights across a number of industries.
That said, while more time is being spent working from home, a consistent hybrid schedule is emerging, as Tuesdays-Thursdays are the most popular days to be in the office, with Finance and CPG leading the way on a trend that was already taking shape prior to the pandemic.
As we look ahead to 2023, it’s clear that businesses will continue to embrace a hybrid model that combines flexibility with facetime. Hybrid models and flexible work arrangements will remain to keep employee satisfaction high. When Bevi moved to a hybrid work model, Bevi’s CEO and Co-Founder, Sean Grundy, shared his thoughts on hybrid work.
“It’s important to get people back together at least two days a week, first and foremost, because I think friendship at work is important. When you actually genuinely care about the people you work with, I think you’re more motivated to do your job, and you go out of your way to help other people, especially people in other departments. Plus, work gets a lot easier, and it gets more fun. So I think it’s important to foster an environment where that friendship can happen.”
Even so, the onus will be on companies to create incentives to get employees excited about coming back into the office and fostering an environment they want to be in. This leads us to our next prediction…
Why are employees not interested in coming back five days a week and instead spending that extra commute time doing the things they love? Because it makes them happy. And why would we want to go back to our old ways if it’s not bringing us joy?
In 2023, there will be an emphasis on workplace happiness, as many workers continue to prioritize their well-being more than they did pre-pandemic. Offering employee perks that support this mentality will become a vital component of attracting and retaining top talent.
A McKinsey study shows that 47% of employees are eager to see their organizations put a greater emphasis on well-being post-pandemic. Additionally, Glassdoor and Indeed’s Hiring and Workplace Trends report surveyed thousands of workers to understand what the work trends for 2023 look like. What they found is really telling:
“Nearly half of workers surveyed said that their expectation around happiness at work has increased in the last year, and 86% of those surveyed say that how they feel at work impacts how they feel at home. What’s more, Glassdoor and Indeed estimate that 90% of people believe that how we feel at work matters, but only 49% of people report their company is measuring happiness and well-being.”
In the coming year, companies must consider offering perks to prioritize employee happiness if they want to remain competitive. Some examples include gym memberships, tuition reimbursement, healthy catered snacks, meals, and beverage options, on-site massages, therapy sessions, nap pods, and more.
Understanding, measuring, and taking action to maintain employee well-being and happiness will be crucial for attracting and retaining talent in the future.
And speaking of attracting talent in the future, our next prediction is closely related to this as well…
In 2023, businesses will experience greater demand for proof of sustainable practices from current and prospective employees, as well as stakeholders, partners, and customers. According to a new report from Handshake, a career resource platform, almost two-thirds of 1,800 respondents stated that they were more likely to apply to a job that committed to sustainable practices.
Additionally, according to GreenBiz’s Business Guide to Carbon Accounting released earlier this year, “Organizations that proactively prioritize sustainable solutions not only cultivate positive stakeholder sentiment in the short term, but set themselves up for long-term success by minimizing risk, capturing new opportunities, and gaining competitive advantage.”
As consumers and corporations grow increasingly environmentally conscious, they can make small changes like reducing their consumption of single-use packaging, implementing recycling and composting programs, or instituting “bring-your-own-bottle” policies.
Another one of those steps is switching from single-use bottled and canned water to a Bevi machine. The bottled beverage industry is arguably the most environmentally wasteful industry in the world as billions of plastic bottles get produced every year in the U.S. alone. Bevi’s mission is to change the beverage supply chain from the inside out, offering a more environmentally friendly method for providing high-quality beverages.
Since its founding in 2013, Bevi machines have displaced the waste of over 300 million plastic bottles and cans, and each machine saves an average of 30,000 bottles per year. By providing quality, flavored water in the spaces people frequent most often, Bevi machines significantly reduce the amount of single-use bottles and cans used across offices and commercial spaces—a mission that will only grow in importance in 2023 and beyond.
Hybrid and flexible work, employee happiness, and sustainable business practices are three important trends that will guide the future of work in 2023. While we wish we had a magic eight ball, only time will tell what the next year truly holds. What predictions and trends do you foresee for the future of work both next year and beyond? Share your thoughts with us on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn!
Whether you’re hosting a small get-together with a few coworkers or planning a holiday bash for the entire company, nothing beats serving up a few holiday-themed cocktails for all to enjoy. But, have you ever thought about including your office Bevi machine in all the merry to spruce up your holiday drinks?
You’ll save money on all of the sparkling water and flavored chasers needed, no more lugging the bottles and cans up to the office and recycling all of them afterward, and bonus, you’ll be helping the planet!
Here are 4 delicious holiday cocktails you and your coworkers can make using the office Bevi machine:
Our version of this holiday classic features Bevi Lime Mint sparkling water and creme de cacao to create a mint chocolate treat that’s perfect for your holiday party.
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Even the Grinch wouldn’t be able to resist this refreshing, fruity cocktail made from Bevi Lemon + Key Lime sparkling water, Midori melon liqueur, and rum!
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If you’re looking to offer your guests a drink that will keep them warm and cozy all evening, look no further than the hot toddy.
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A fun twist on a childhood favorite, our Dirty Shirley is made using vodka, grenadine syrup, and Bevi Lemon + Key Lime sparkling water. Don’t forget the maraschino cherries!
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If you try any of these Bevi cocktails at your next holiday party, we’d love to see them! Share your photos or videos with us on our Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or Twitter!
If you think your office is on the road to sustainability, you’re probably starting to take some positive steps toward lowering your environmental impact. Even so, a recent report might have you wanting to check in with your employees about your sustainability report card from their perspective.
In a survey of 2,000 office workers, intranet company Unily found that 83% of employees felt their employer wasn’t doing enough to tackle sustainability issues, and 65% also said they would be more likely to work for a company with a strong environmental policy. In the age of the “Great Resignation,” it’s clear that you can’t afford to fall behind competitors on the sustainability front.
If you want to get smart about sustainability in your office, one easy way forward is with a Bevi smart water cooler. Why choose Bevi? It turns a human necessity into a unique office perk that can be customized by each and every employee, save your company money, and prevent plastic bottles from ending up in the landfill. It’s even more than that, too…
Meet Bevi: The Smart Water Cooler from Bevi on Vimeo.
While some snacks and break room diversions can be fun extras, a refreshing glass of water is something we can all agree on as being essential to get us through the workday. The best part is that, with Bevi, coworkers don’t have to agree on anything past that.
With over 48,000 drink combinations to choose from with our Standup 2.0, a glass of Bevi water is customizable from the temperature to the bubbliness to the flavor and enhancements. What’s more, it’s a delightful addition to any office that will provide a natural place for coworkers to gather and get back in the habit of in-person collaboration.
Speaking of flavor and enhancements, you’ll have the power to decide what’s in your glass and what’s not, with complete transparency around the nutritional value of any additions. For starters, all of our flavors and enhancements are sodium-free, gluten-free, vegan, and devoid of any artificial ingredients. They’re made from real fruit essence to create delicious combinations like Blackberry Lime, Strawberry Lemongrass, and Peach Mango.
If you need a boost, try one of our healthy enhancements, Electrolytes, Caffeine or Immunity. Staying healthy at the office is easy with a fun way to hydrate and extra health benefits in every glass.
In addition to investing in your employees with a healthy refreshment option, Bevi water coolers are a smart investment when it comes to the bottom line. On average, our machines are 40-60% less expensive than purchasing single use bottles and cans.
They’re also a time saver, eliminating extra tasks for your office manager so they can increase productivity in other areas of the business. Gone are the days of lifting heavy water jugs and cases of seltzer water. Because our water dispensers are internet-enabled, we do the monitoring and restocking for you. All the necessary parts–flavors, filters, and CO2 levels–are seamlessly replaced to keep your office happily hydrated.
Your recycling bin is about to get a whole lot lonelier. One Bevi machine can displace over 30,000 bottles and cans per year. Bevi customers have saved over 200 million bottles to date, not to mention the oil necessary to make plastic bottles or the carbon emitted once they’re filled with water and shipped all over the country.
Want to motivate your team to up their sustainability game? You can monitor your own machine’s impact by navigating to the “Explore” tab on the touchscreen. A real-time counter shows the bottles and cans you’re saving, as well as what that translates to in terms of carbon and trees.
It’s clear that employees want their workplaces to take a more active role in sustainability efforts, and the Bevi Standup 2.0 water dispenser is an easy way to invest in the health of your workforce while also being mindful of the environment.
With thousands of possible drink combinations, every employee will find their favorite flavor and keep track of their personal sustainability journey as well. A Bevi water dispenser in the office means happier employees, lower costs, and a visible commitment to sustainability.
Ready to join over 4,000 companies using Bevi today? Get a quote for your office today.
As an Office Manager, there may be multiple reasons why you’re looking to cut costs around the office. Perhaps you’re looking to set aside money for other initiatives like company events, professional development, and additional office perks—or maybe you were asked by upper management to improve cash flow.
Whatever the reason may be, there are many ways to trim office expenditures without sacrificing quality and comfort—it may just take a bit of creativity, research, and planning.
Not only will the tips highlighted in this blog post save your business money in the long run, but they will also help your office become more sustainable. Win-win!
Let’s take a look at 10 different ways you can efficiently cut costs around the office.
Office snacks are always a hit amongst employees. Unfortunately, these costs can add up over time, especially if you’re paying the full retail price and frequently restocking your snack cabinets.
Though large boxes of single-serving chips and cookies are convenient, they could be costing you more money than you think (and tons of wrapper waste!).
One way to save money on office snacks is to buy products that come in single, large containers. Encourage employees to portion out their own servings using cups or small bowls. Not only is this a cheaper alternative to traditional single-serve packaging, but you’ll also be reducing your plastic use.
Take a moment to look around your office. Do you notice multiple staplers or rolls of packing tape collecting dust or taking up space in a supply cabinet?
Think about how often your employees use certain office supplies—staplers, hole punches, scissors, labels, etc—and start a shared space where employees can access common office supplies.
It may sound elementary at first (remember fighting over the fruity-scented markers in fourth grade?), but trust that your employees will respect this new initiative.
Try placing a sign by the shared supplies reminding people to return anything they borrow once they are done using them. If you’re including single-use products like paper clips or sticky notes, remind employees to only take what they need.
When LED lights were first introduced back in the 1960s, they were insanely inexpensive (think $200 per bulb). Thanks to improvements in technology, LED bulbs are now considered cheaper than traditional incandescent bulbs.
Take a stroll around your office space and note areas that currently use either fluorescent or incandescent lighting. If you work in a large office or in a shared commercial space, you may need to work with lighting professionals to make the switch. But trust us, it will absolutely be worth the effort considering LED lights are 75% more energy efficient than incandescent lights.
It’s estimated that the average full-time employee costs a company $725 a year just on printing habits. Of course, this is only an average and will not apply to everyone in your company, considering everyone’s specific printing needs.
Regardless of how much you currently spend on ink, paper, and printer maintenance, cutting down on printing costs is as simple as encouraging employees to go digital. Urge workers to only print what they absolutely need and stick to black and white ink when possible.
If you spend a lot of time and money restocking your company fridge with cases of bottled water and flavored seltzer, you’ll be thrilled to know we offer a cost-saving (and environmentally-friendly) solution.
By switching to a smart water cooler like Bevi, you will be saving roughly 30,000 bottles and cans a year, along with saving on beverage costs.
On average, a glass of water from the Bevi machine costs roughly $0.20 per 12 oz glass—less than half of what you’d pay for bottled, flavored, and sparkling water.
In addition to being better for the planet, your employees can make custom drinks with over 12 flavors made from natural extracts and no artificial ingredients, enjoy water enhanced with Caffeine or Immunity (a vitamin blend), and rally around the real-time counter that shows how many bottles your office is saving.
It’s estimated that air conditioners account for one-fifth of the total electricity used in buildings around the planet. When you consider the other objects that also use electricity such as machinery, electronics, and kitchen appliances—that’s a large piece of the pie.
If you can open a few windows to bring in fresh air when it’s nice outside, you may be able to get your office air conditioner a break. Plus, welcoming in fresh air is shown to improve mental health.
Purchasing brand-new office furniture can get expensive very quickly, with the average office chair costing between $150-$300.
Instead of buying your office furniture and decor from a known retailer, take a look at local secondhand stores or online marketplaces for great deals on gently used furniture. It may take some research before you find a bargain, but once you do, you’ll be on your way to cutting down office expenses in no time!
When packing up to leave for the day, it can be easy to forget to turn off or unplug your tech. Leaving technology plugged in overnight (and especially over the weekend) can cause your energy bill to skyrocket.
To save both time and money, use surge protectors to power up your most used technology around the office. That way, all your employees need to do is flip the power switch before leaving the office, as opposed to unplugging every power cord.
Even in the digital age, there will almost always be a need for office supplies such as paper, envelopes, file folders, labels, and tape.
Look for office supply companies that offer discounts when you buy wholesale, such as Staples or Amazon.com.
Before buying wholesale, it doesn’t hurt to take inventory of supplies you already have to avoid overspending. If you have an overabundance of paper clips or sticky notes sitting in your supply cabinet, you can probably scratch those from your list.
Listen, forgetting to turn off the lights happens to the best of us, especially after a long day at work. With many other important things occurring during the work day, switching off the office lights may be at the bottom of your to-do list by the time you pack up for the evening.
That’s why another great way to cut costs is by investing in motion-sensor lights. In addition to being economical, they also remove some responsibility from the last employee to leave for the day. Those employees will seriously thank you!
Cutting costs around the office doesn’t need to be a daunting task, especially if you only choose to implement a few of these tips at a time.
Not only does reducing your office expenses improve your business’s cash flow, but you will also be doing the planet a huge favor by trimming your energy bill and eliminating excessive waste.
Do you have other cost-saving tips you’d like to share? Send them our way on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn!
Where there’s convenience, there’s often waste and harmful environmental effects. Just like fast fashion, fast furniture is also taking a toll as cheaper, flimsier couches, tables, and chairs end up in the landfill more often than their sturdier counterparts.
As we return to the evolving hybrid office or spruce up our trusty home offices, let’s be mindful of sustainable sources and practices to continue greening our workspaces. Here are a few ideas for creating or sourcing sustainable office furniture options.
Where possible, buy used! Neighbor-to-neighbor reselling networks like Craigslist, Nextdoor, and Facebook Marketplace are full of used furniture that need a new home. With a little luck, you’ll get a deal and save another piece of furniture from the trash heap.
One way to build team chemistry and drive home the importance of sustainability in your office is to build furniture together. An easy beginner-friendly project could be repurposing wooden crates into storage units. See if you can make a connection with another local business that usually disposes of their crates and then follow instructions from a source like The Shabby Creek Cottage.
It’s not always possible to find exactly what you need from a reseller (especially when you need it). That’s why we’ve also compiled a few well-known brands that are doing their best to create furniture with sustainable materials and practices. Herman Miller is known for their award-winning innovative design. What you might not know is that their popular Aeron Chair is now a lot more sustainable.
According to the company, “We updated the Aeron Chair, adding ocean-bound plastic to the body—all without compromising what makes it the best work chair on Earth.”
Learn more about the Aeron Chair here.
Along with the Wayfairs and IKEAs of the world, West Elm is a common option for modern furniture. What sets them apart, though, is their commitment to fair trade and sustainability.
According to Global Green Family, West Elm’s furniture is “GREENGUARD Gold Certified, and their mid-century style desks are made ethically in Vietnam and India using FSC-certified wood and water-based coatings.”
In the past, the company has even collaborated with the Pratt Design Incubator on a line of sustainable office furniture including the desk featured above. We could easily see it as the centerpiece in your home office or a new upgrade to the hybrid spaces you’re designing to allow more collaboration in your traditional office.
Shop all of West Elm’s sustainable and FSC-certified furniture here.
We all love a chair that rolls, but not all of our living spaces were created with rollability in mind. Rather than using plastic to improve your sustainable office chair’s range of motion, try bamboo!
According to Haiku designs, not only is bamboo more attractive, but it’s also more durable than common plastic mats. Learn more about their collection here.
Fully is a Certified B Corp that holds itself to high standards not only in its sustainable sourcing but also in its team culture. Want more details on those principles? Check out their most recent sustainability report, and then check out their poufs and chairs.
With a design “inspired by lotus leaves,” the nola pouf is perfect for a hybrid office that needs more modular seating options. Made out of polyester melange yarn, they’re “durable, easy-to-clean, and perfect for furniture used in high traffic areas.” This means you’ll have it longer, reducing your office’s lifetime footprint.
With less files comes less cabinets, but there are still some industries that require a paper trail, and for them, a natural walnut cabinet is the way to go. Eco Friendly Digs not only makes quality office furniture that lasts, but they also plant one tree for every purchase!
In addition to being GREENGUARD Certified, this cabinet maker has been awarded Silver Exemplary Membership Status by the Sustainable Furnishings Council. Find more eco-friendly digs here.
Hook & Loom aims to “Protect the Planet [and] Flatter your Floor.” Their process includes creating colored yarns from recovered textile fiber, handweaving, and leaving out harmful dyes, chemicals, and latex.
Shop rugs for your home office here.
For office basics, we’ve already compiled a list of eco-friendly office supplies we love, but if you’re looking for some ethically-made office accents to add some fun and style to your space, try Minna. They are “a tight-knit team of artists, creators, and thinkers” who believe in “creating beautiful, ethically made products and using business to do good.”
Find some of their fun office objects here.
The return to the office offers yet another opportunity to commit your workplace to green principles and practices. What ways are you incorporating sustainability as you get back to work? We’d love to hear your ideas on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn!
August 09, 2022 07:30 ET | Source: Cowen Inc.
BOSTON, Aug. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bevi, the market leader in smart water coolers, announced a $70 million Series D investment from Cowen Sustainable Investments (CSI), an environmental sustainability-focused growth investment platform. The $70 million in equity funding will support Bevi’s rapid growth and expansion into new verticals and products.
In 2015, Bevi pioneered smart water coolers that provide filtered, flavored, and sparkling water on demand. Bevi machines offer a more affordable and environmentally sustainable alternative to bottled water and flavored seltzer. Earlier this year, Bevi introduced its Standup 2.0, a next-generation water machine that offers over 40,000 permutations of beverages by letting users customize flavors, enhancements, carbonation levels and temperature. Bevi has helped customers save over 300 million single-use bottles and cans to date.
“Bevi offers a unique value proposition to customers that is more sustainable, is cost-advantageous to incumbent bottles and cans, is easier to maintain and has demonstrated mass appeal,” said Co-Head of CSI, Ewa Kozicz. “It is no surprise that Bevi’s brand is unrivaled in the category.”
Key areas of investment include:
“Our purpose at Bevi is to transform beverages from one of the most wasteful industries on the planet to one of the most sustainable,” said Sean Grundy, Bevi’s Co-Founder and CEO. “We are driving the transition from an antiquated supply chain built around single-use plastic bottles to a network of smart machines that purify tap water and perfectly formulate beverages at the point of use. To realize our vision at scale, we need to build out groundbreaking infrastructure, optimize systems to manage this infrastructure and grow Bevi into a household name. Through the investment from Cowen Sustainable Investments we are now sufficiently capitalized to make this happen.”
“We are excited to partner with Bevi because of our strong mission alignment and the opportunity to leverage CSI’s data analytics expertise,” added Vusal Najafov, Co-Head of CSI. “Bevi has built an unparalleled database of beverage preferences at a highly localized level, and by investing in their data analytics capabilities, Bevi will be able to offer each customer a more personalized experience and create a truly innovative beverage brand.”
Artem Mariychin, Managing Director at CSI, will join the company’s board.
About Bevi
Bevi designs smart water coolers that provide filtered, flavored, sparkling, and enhanced water on demand. The company was founded in 2013 by graduates of MIT and Yale University who shared a vision to redesign the beverage supply chain and eliminate the need for single-use disposable water bottles. Bevi machines are located throughout North America in the offices of corporations such as Lyft, Netflix, Bank of America, and BCG, and in amenity areas of residential apartment buildings run by leading property management firms such as Greystar and Colliers. To date, Bevi has helped customers save over 300 million single-use bottles and cans. For more information, visit www.bevi.co.
About Cowen Sustainable Investments
Founded in 2018, Cowen Sustainable Investments (CSI) provides tailored financing and data analytics solutions to companies that are accelerating the world’s transition to an environmentally sustainable economy by addressing pollution, waste, and resource constraints. The CSI strategy is managed by Cowen Sustainable Advisors LLC, a division of Cowen Inc. (“Cowen”). Cowen is a diversified financial services firm offering investment banking services, research, sales and trading, prime brokerage, global clearing, commission management services and investment management. Cowen focuses on delivering value-added capabilities to our clients in order to help them outperform. Founded in 1918, Cowen is headquartered in New York and has offices worldwide. Learn more at Cowen.com.
Bevi Press Contact
Jon Carlson
VP Marketing
jon.carlson@bevi.co
Cowen Sustainable Investments Press Contact
Gagnier Communications
Dan Gagnier
646-569-5897
dg@gagnierfc.com
We’re going to go out on a limb here and guess that free food is as hard for you to resist as it is for us. That’s why, with employees getting set to return to physical offices in the new year, it’s no surprise that one of the most popular perks to welcome them back is providing free breakfast or lunch on site. It’s a great way to help your team stay healthy and energized while also providing an opportunity to mingle with coworkers across departments and levels of experience.
As with everything we do, we’re also interested in helping companies explore this healthy team-building opportunity in a sustainable way. From the food source to the serving utensils, here are some ideas for ordering sustainable food options for your office.
Whenever possible, order from local vendors who provide an array of in-season foods. Not only will you be supporting another local business, but by cutting out the miles that most national bands travel to your supermarket, you’ll be saving gas and drastically lowering the carbon footprint of your meal.
Instead of ordering large catering portions of a few dishes, take more precise orders from everyone who will be joining the meal. Even if they’re just choosing from the limited menu that you previously ordered in bulk, getting an accurate headcount will help you hone in on the correct amount of food and prevent extra servings from ending up in the garbage (and later on becoming greenhouse gases).
If you do end up with extra food, look for a local mutual aid group or food shelter that can help redistribute it to neighbors in need. If your leftovers are closer to scraps than actual meals, send the appropriate food groups to a compost pile. The benefits of composting organic foods like fruits and vegetables includes:
Composting sustainably-sourced food to help create more sustainable food for our community is a cycle we don’t mind getting caught up in!
Vegetarianism isn’t for everyone, but there are a lot of green-, grain-, and bean-based dishes that fill you up and taste great. If even one team meal a week was meatless it would make a significant difference in cutting the harmful emissions produced by the meat industry.
Salad, soup, pizza, and pasta are other easy ideas for feeding a crowd delicious meals that don’t necessarily include meat.
Sustainable meals include beverages, too, and a touchless water cooler is a great way to give the whole office flexibility over their choices while limiting nonrecyclable materials. Not only have Bevi water coolers saved over 200 million single-use bottles from ending up in a landfill or polluting a body of water, but using these machines also eliminates the oil needed to create plastic and the emissions that come with transporting them.
And those are just the environmental benefits! With over a dozen zero and low-calorie flavors, and the choice between sparkling and still, a Bevi water cooler is a natural companion to a healthy and sustainable catered meal at your office.
If your office has a dishwasher, reusable plates and silverware are a no brainer. Don’t just stop at personal forks and knives, though. If the team meal becomes a recurring event, it will make sense to invest in reusable serving utensils as well. Even better would be centering meals around foods like wraps or sandwiches that don’t require utensils and using platters instead of individual boxes for each meal.
Even without a dishwasher, you could still rotate dish duty and provide natural cleaning supplies as part of a greater effort to make your office more sustainable (and if you need a few more ideas in that regard, we’ve got 30 of them). If it’s necessary to dispose of items after eating, make sure your plates and utensils are compostable!
Sustainability doesn’t stop when the order is placed or the meal is served. Make sure that everyone knows where they can take their recyclable or compostable materials at meal’s end. For starters, put out bins for recycling and composting next to the trash receptacle and make an announcement about the best way for the components of the meal to be cleaned up. Communicating intentions and setting goals that are in line with your office’s commitment to sustainability is an ongoing effort.
On a busy day, it’s easy to forget to eat lunch or to grab something quick and processed instead of a healthy snack. That’s why providing breakfast or lunch is one way to ensure a smooth return to the office for all employees. With that comes the responsibility and challenge of doing so sustainably.
How are you planning to welcome employees back? Does it involve a healthy, sustainable meal? Let us know by joining the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn!
