Negotiations have broken down and the leaders started to frown. For that, a global fuel crisis has come out. The ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia is causing an arbitrary rise in natural gas prices in the global market. The Covid-19 pandemic hasn't taken its paw yet on the global economy. Bangladesh is facing the problem of an ongoing fuel crisis like other countries.

While appeasing the pandemic situation, floods in the northeast region had troubled the economy. The nation was celebrating its achievement of 100 pc power grid coverage and the opening of Padma Bridge but the fuel crisis is throwing down our economy into darkness by bringing back the load shedding.

The government has taken some steps in advance to assuage the crisis. Circulars had been issued to conserve 25 per cent electricity and 20 per cent fuel in the government offices and to reduce office time. The crisis we are seeing vividly is recent but a major crisis of climate change is always fatal for us. There is no time better than now to implement the green office policy in every office of this country.

The way the world is going, it is very hard to have a conscience and look away. The government has taken many initiatives regarding climate change issues like energy policy, national conservation policy, environment court act, sustainable and green finance policy, green banking policy etc.

Even some privatised organisations have already formulated green office policies. But now is the best time to conduct mandatory green office policy nationally for every government, autonomous organisation along with private entity. A green office is an effective environmental management system engaging the work community.

It involves the concern and exercise of all employees in the organisation. By observing the green office programme, offices can reduce their burden on the environment by minimising office equipment and energy consumption, putting up recycling initiatives, and committing to sustainable travel and services.

The annual performance agreement introduced by the Cabinet Division is an obligation for government offices in quantitative measures and specified indicators. A green office programme can be introduced as such with a rating and setting up numeric targets. But the policy must be adaptive and congruous.

The first thing that comes to mind thinking of a green office is the paperless office. A huge amount of paper is being used in every office and also gets wasted. It is a tradition in offices to print as you wish and no one to monitor this. A big amount of trees are being cut down every day to produce paper.

Most of the employees like to have personal printers and print without sharing. In most offices, the officers are lazy enough to print on both sides of the paper and nonchalant about wasting paper and toner cartridges. e-file system by a2i is imperative in this era of digitalisation where executives have personal computers and smartphones. Why should you print the letter or notice that you have issues digitally?

Everyone has a smartphone and they can reach the PDF file of circulars, letters, notices or other important documents using mobile data or Wi-Fi. Printing presentation in meetings is a common practice which should be avoided. You don't need to send a printed copy to another corner of the country.

Every official uses e-mail which is faster and officially appropriate as an electronic signature or scanned signature can be added to the email. Grameenphone introduced paperless office culture in 2010 and now some corporate offices also adopting the culture.

But the main focus of implementation should be on government offices because the policymakers and the service providers to citizens should adopt green office culture in the present situation of cost reduction.

The pandemic has forced us to shift meeting virtually and work from home culture. Mobile and land phone bills should be cut up. Instead, instant messaging and communication platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, Viber, Telegram etc can be used by allocating a monthly internet bill.

We overconsume not only clothes and food but also energy and electric appliances. When will we understand that our resources are limited? Energy consumption is a vital factor in environmental impacts in offices. Most are not concerned to switch off the fan and light, even the air conditioner before leaving offices.

The electric appliances run for a minimum of eight hours straight a day and the officers rush to leave the office by passing up the responsibility to their subordinates for turning the appliances off. Question is, who uses these appliances the whole day and the next day?

And please turn off your desktop computer when you don't use it for a long period. This will not only save energy but also prolong its lifespan. We come to a point in time where the proverb "let the government properties be poured in the sea" needs to be proved wrong.

The easiest way to reshape the office premises for systematic and productive environmental management is to use biophilic design in the workplace, energy-saving CFL and LED bulbs, eco-friendly inverter air conditioner, solar panel, eco-friendly cleaning products, reusable office equipment etc.

Also, make the most of natural light on a bright day, print in smaller font, maintain a proper waste disposal system, reduce CFC and conserve fuel for office transport. Buying in bulk helps reduce costs in procurement. Seven R's to follow: reserve, reduce, reuse, rethink, recycle, repair and refund.

What are the benefits of a green office? In short, it is an active, sustainable and goal-oriented way to boost your productivity and services along with developing the environmental quality of any office through innovation to reduce ecological footprints.

We are in the era of the fourth industrial revolution and Digital Bangladesh. To inseminate e-governance and sustainability, the green office is the buttress. Bangladesh bank has taken many significant steps to establish paperless banking activities and transactions.

Every service-oriented organisation in Bangladesh should seek to become truly green, and not just greenwash their stakeholders to overcome our ongoing and future crises.

ZM Hafizur Rahman is a writer & general manager of Ansar-VDP Unnayan Bank. He can be reached at hafizprobhbfc@gmail.com.

Nayeem Shahriar is a writer & researcher. He can be reached at shahriars592@gmail.com