Today’s challenge is to help keep Australia beautiful by reducing waste and greening up your office!

Here are two really easy ways to do your bit for the planet:

Buy a reusable coffee cup

There are around 500 billion disposable coffee cups produced each year and, according to KeepCup, one million of these are discarded every single minute to become landfill around the world. Many contain plastics that do not break down and cannot be recycled.

The good news? You can keep feeding your coffee addiction without harming the environment: just buy a Keep Cup!

Check these out:

• The Oxfam Keep Cup means you are not only helping the environment with your purchase, but also donating to charity. You can also design your own.
• If you’re looking for a good staff gift that makes a positive environmental impact this story from Shop Naturally featuring the Avanti mug is quite the inspiration.
• The Frank Green range is really quite stylish– and it’s not limited to reusable coffee cups, there are drink bottles too.
• Choice magazine rates the Cheeki as up there with the best.
• The Refugee Advice and Casework Service’s Keep Cups sales allow them to continue their pro bono work supporting refugees and asylum seekers.
• Want to double your environmental efforts? Purchase a Keep Cup from 1 Million Women and help them continue to fight climate change.

Green up the office

Most of us make an effort to reduce waste, conserve resources and take care of the environment at home, so why not at the office?

Here are five simple ways that you and your colleagues can get a little greener:

• Buy a new pot plant for the office to absorb airborne pollutants..
• Ensure every desk has a recycling bin within arm’s reach, even if it’s an old cardboard box.
• Send a quick email to your colleagues with 3 easy instructions on saving paper and ink: set your default printing settings to double sided, draft mode, and grayscale. So easy!
• Reduce electricity use by making sure your PC and monitor is set to the most energy efficient settings (e.g. no screen savers!), and switch them off before heading home. Encourage your colleagues to do the same.
• Avoid using plastic cutlery. If your office doesn’t provide metal or reusable cutlery, bring in your own from home.

Join the 5 Days of Giving by downloading the poster here. Tag us on social media with your challenge completions.

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