8 Ways To Make Your Property "Green"

By Jessi Stickel on April 23, 2016

https://news.wsu.edu

In today’s society, many individuals, companies and even cities are “going green.” We try to get out of some of our old habits in order to keep the environment healthy. One of the main points is to recycle in order to reduce waste and potential litter.

Some of these “going green” steps can be simple and make a huge difference in your community and the world. Since the “green” trend is really catching on, landlords are trying to make their residencies green as well. However, they do not want to cross the line and push away potential residents with their green ways.

Here are more subtle, but effective, ways to make a property more green.

1. Recycling facilities

If properties offer indoor and outdoor recycling facilities, it will promote recycling to all residents and make it less of a hassle. Given the ability to recycle things just as easily as throwing them away, more people will most likely partake in recycling every day. You would be surprised how much recyclables can come from just one floor of residents a day.

2. Water bottle refill fountains

http://www.elkay.com

You will see these at a lot of college campuses and many students use them. These machines allow people to fill up their reusable water bottles and have filtered drinking water all day long. This will reduce the amount of plastic non-reusable bottles. Many of these water machines also show a count of the number of water bottles it has saved by people refilling their bottles instead of grabbing a new one.

3. Community garden

Offering a community garden for your residents will get the residents acquainted with each other, while helping out the environment as well. Residents could save trips to the grocery store also!

4. Bike racks

http://www.sportworks.com

Having bike racks outside your buildings will allow people who already ride bikes somewhere to store them, and also promote riding a bike to school or work, rather than a car. This can also save more space for grassland and trees, if you do not need such a big parking lot for the residents’ cars.

5. Setting up carpool teams

Not everyone is a “bike person,” especially if you live in an area where the winters are really cold or summers are really hot. You can create a carpool signup list online and send it to all the residents over email. People may be more willing to carpool with their neighbors if they have easy access to a list on their phone or computer. This will create less pollution in the atmosphere because there will be less cars emitting gases into the air.

6. Community cleanup and plant weekend

http://www.yovenice.com

You could form a community cleanup, where all the residents get together and clean up somewhere in your area. You can also have a day where the residents get together and plant flowers and trees around the property. This is great for not only the environment, but also for getting residents involved in the community.

7. Newspaper/magazine share rack

You can have a rack in the lobby of your apartment buildings for newspapers and magazines that are for grabs from other residents. This will reduce paper waste, and you can make sure the old ones left will get properly recycled. The rack might be well-liked by your residents as well, since some of them will be saving money on the daily newspaper or gossip mag.

8. Solar panel power

http://newpraisechurch.org

Solar panels are a great way to save energy. Depending on how many solar panels you install and how big the building is, you may or may not be able to power the whole building with these sun soaking panels, but they will do at least the lights. Every little bit helps when you’re “going green” and helping the environment. You could also put up posters in the halls, suggesting to turn off the lights while not using them and keeping electronics unplugged while not charging them.

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