Running an environmentally sustainable office can have a positive impact on the way you are perceived by your employees and your clients.

Environmental sustainability is becoming a “litmus test for younger employees,” says David Miller, president and CEO of WWF-Canada and former mayor of Toronto. In addition to attracting engaged employees to your business, a focus on sustainability can contribute to your entire reputation.

“If you’re able to show leadership on sustainability,” Miller says, “it makes a statement to clients and others about the seriousness of your business and the difference in dealing with you. It shows you’re responsible, you’re efficient and you’re progressive.”

Here are four steps to making your office green:

1. Measure your impact
Miller notes the importance of measuring the effects of your current activities before making changes: “Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg L.P. and former mayor of New York has been really clear. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

Analyze how your office affects the environment, from energy use and waste to your methods of travel. For example, if you and your employees travel short distances by plane, travel by train whenever possible instead.

2. Minimize waste
The daily activities of an operation can create a significant amount of waste, and the collection and disposal of that waste represents up to 4% of an organization’s costs, according to WWF-Canada.

Reduce waste in the office by creating convenient opportunities for recycling and composting. For example, Miller says, minimize the use of paper in your business by going digital. When you do use paper, opt for paper that’s been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC certification means that the paper has been sourced in an eco-friendly and socially responsible manner.

Miller suggests cutting back on waste in the kitchen as well by setting up a compost bin for food scraps.

3. Monitor energy usage
Look for opportunities to reduce energy consumption in your office. The office of WWF-Canada, for example, has motion detectors so that the lights are turned off automatically when no one is in a room.

Assess whether all of the lights in your office are necessary in the first place. Hallways, for example, may not need to be as brightly lit as work spaces. Even if you don’t install motion detectors, you can minimize energy by ensuring that team members turn lights off when certain rooms, such as boardrooms, are not in use, Miller adds.

4. Start or join a sustainability committee
WWF-Canada’s Living Planet at Work program encourages organizations to create a sustainability committee or “green team” to encourage and implement sustainability practices throughout the office.

“It’s a combination of things that seem small in themselves,” Miller says, “but when everybody in the company is paying attention to them, it makes a really big difference.”