I'm part of the Eco Team at my work office. Each office in my organization has an Eco Team and we have guidelines that have been developed at the corporate level. We coordinate many different projects both outside and inside the office to create a more sustainable and healthy workplace.
I'm a member of the outdoor committee. Currently we're planning activities that we would like to work on at the office this year. We're lucky that our office is in the middle of a park and we have quite a bit of land to work with. Our main outdoor asset is a large vegetable garden plot that staff can use all season long. We're also talking about setting up an outdoor lunch or meeting space, coordinating workshops with the education committee so staff can learn more about gardening, and talking to our property managers about changing some of the outdoor maintenance practices, reducing the amount of salt used in the winter, reducing mowing, and using native plants in the flower gardens.
The indoor committee is currently working on an initiative to bring more houseplants (officeplants) into the office. Last week, I assisted one of the indoor committee members with a survey of all of current officeplants. This was a plant ID challenge because most of the plants are non-native species from tropical regions. We figured them all out and we have quite a few different species. They can all be propagated easily by taking clippings and encouraging them to root. We also found many pots of dry soil and dead plants. We're going to have to incorporate a watering schedule for some cubicles and help people learn how to take care of our new officeplants.
In my cubicle, I am going to plant an aloe vera plant. They have very useful antiseptic properties. My greatest work health and safety hazard is exposure to sharp paper edges, so the aloe vera might come in useful. I avoid paper cuts these days by avoiding printing all together. Lately I've been thinking about each piece of paper as a slice of a tree and that makes me not want to waste them at all. Also, I just had the two giant filing cabinets removed from my office and I intend to stop putting paper in storage. Files can be saved electronically just as easily and they are much easier to search.
Other than the aloe vera, I am going to plant entirely native plants in my cubicle. I've been trying to do some research about using native plants as houseplants, but I haven't found many good sources of information. I've decided that I will choose plants that generally grow in forest areas. They require less direct sunlight. Maybe only indirect sunlight. A lot of them require moist soils, which might be a challenge at times, but I have been using upside down thin necked glass bottles of water to keep my balcony plants watered over long weekends in the summer and that has worked fine. I also usually plant native plants in native soils where their roots can interact with soil fungi. I think this is pretty important for native forest plants. I"m going to try planting some in a soilless potting mix, but I might also try some in some native soil mixed with something organic to reduce soil compaction in the pot.
The first two species I'm going to start with are wild ginger and bloodroot. These are two of my favourite species. I also want to try a fern and maybe a grass or a sedge. I'm going to order all of these from the North American Native Plant Society annual plant sale. Members of NANPS can pre-order plants. Also, they'll be started and well-established. Giving them a better chance of survival in captivity. We'll see how this officeplant experiment goes.
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