The office isn’t usually where the environment is a top priority but green collar workers are lobbying bosses to bring in environmental measures in the workplace.

The term Green Collar Worker has been around for a while; first coined by Fujitsu Siemens in 2004. The term refers to a person who’s work, in one way or another, protects the environment. Employees whose work for an environmental agency or lobby their bosses for green working practises in the office can be classified as Green Collar Workers.

Latest research from Fujitsu Siemens Computers found that just over half, fifty-one per cent, of employees regularly lobby their employer to bring in green practises and procedures and eighty per cent of employees thought they were more environmentally aware today than they were three years ago.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) are also in on things. Their latest figures found that more than 8 out of 10 of us recycle in work. Twenty million of us walk or cycle when we have to make journeys of less than a mile, seventy one per cent of us turn off our PCs at night and even more of us recycle paper.

The government backed Carbon Trust, who specialise in helping small firms improve their energy efficiency, has calculated that businesses throw away approximately £1 billion each year through wasted energy. Commercial and industrial buildings consume a huge amount of energy for lighting, heating, air conditioning and technology.

Steve Kendall-Smith UK managing director at Fujitsu Siemens Regional:

“Our research shows that the gap between how green we are at home and how green we are at work is certainly closing. We hope that the increased lobbying from this now well-established group of “Green Collar Workers” can only help to make many more UK businesses greener places to work in the future”.

As local authorities introduce policies to meet government targets, our attitudes to the environment are changing and we’re recycling more at home and in the workplace.