Your Guide To Green

Working from home is a bonus for both our pocket books and the environment.  By not driving our cars, we reduce the amount of pollutants that come out of our tail pipe, not to mention the amount of gas we buy—a real bonus in these times of high gas prices.  One of my favorite commutes of the past was the commute from the breakfast table across the Arizona room to my office…a nice little building that sits at the house end of my driveway.  And the biggest bonus was the dogs were with me at the office every day.  But what else can you do to run a green-minded office?

Once upon a time, it seemed like advances in computer technology would lead to the paperless office.  Well in my case, going paperless has just not happened, but there are ways to rethink your paper and toner usage that do make a difference.  Turn hard copies, such as your company newsletter, into an e-mail to save on printing and mailing costs.  Plus discontinue using the fax machine by sending emails with pdf’s attached instead.

You can also use paper more efficiently. One of my favorites is with my new printer, which prints on both sides of the page.  That in itself cut my paper usage in half. If you don’t have a two-sided printer, load used paper in the second printer tray and print on the other side.  

Also, reduce the number of pages you print by decreasing the margins or reducing your word count.  Then I use the print preview function on my computer to view the number of pages and get clear about the amount of copies that I really need, all before I click the print button.

When using paper, buy it with recycled content, which reduces the need to harvest trees.  But paper is just part of the story, also try setting your print function to the save toner mode.  Doing so puts less toner on the page and extends the time between those costly cartridge purchases.

When it come to office furnishings, used furniture stores are great.  Recently I needed file cabinets and the prospect of spending hundreds of dollars per cabinet was daunting.  I stumbled into the used furniture store and found four file cabinets for $10 each.  Plus while I was there I found those very expensive hanging file folders at an incredible discount.  Buying used is important because it reduces the need to manufacture new items.

There are also ways to cut down on your office energy use by using natural light or putting in compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). When purchasing new printers, computers, copiers and the like, look for the EnergyStar® logo.  These products meet strict energy efficient guidelines, as part of a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.  All these ideas lighten the impact on the environment and our pocketbooks.  Oh yea. . . and don’t forget to recycle.