A Great List of Greening the office How to-’s
We see “Go Green” all the time! Businesses are in Marin County and San Francisco are even becoming Green Business certified. Personally “green” seems like a marketing label often and the practices behind it are not discussed enough. The word is becoming over used. In the June issue of InConcert Financial Group’s newsletter (Forte), the have a wonderful article on the practices of going Green in your business. It’s a lot of how’s and a lot of suggestions on getting all your employees to carry out the practices. It’s a long hearty article and one of the bests I’ve seen on the topic:
Click here to read the full article!
- Furnish mugs and glasses to all employees for coffee and water. Keep a few extra mugs for guests. If you must have disposable cups, use paper, not Styrofoam.
- Drink tap water, and avoid bottled water. Buy a filter if desired. Tap water is much safer and more regulated than bottled water.
- Change all of your light bulbs to CFLs and energy-saving solutions.
- Turn off and unplug all computers and electronic devices after hours. Even when these devices are turned off, they will continue to use electricity unless you unplug the power cord to keep them from charging all night.
- Unplug coffee machines and other appliances at work when they are not in use so they don’t pull electricity all day.
- You can use a SmartStrip in lieu of unplugging everything. A SmartStrip is a combination power strip and energy-saving device that will turn off your electronics when not in use.
- Use environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies and insist that your housekeeping crew do the same.
- Use recycled products. Look for products with a high percentage of postconsumer recycled content, reduced chemical content, and biodegradable or compostable components.
- Reuse file folders, boxes and all other office supplies before buying new ones.
- Recycle all equipment you wish to retire. The U.S. Postal Service announced in March 2008 that it will provide free postage and already-addressed envelopes for people who wish to recycle their old iPods, Blackberries, MP3 players, small inkjet cartridges, and digital cartridges. For computers and accessories, I have had success with Dell’s recycling and donation program through the National Cristina Foundation, my old laptop received a second life at a needy nonprofit in Dallas .
- Question your suppliers about their environmental policies, and switch, if necessary. Buy local, if at all possible, to reduce trucking and shipping costs. Support supplier and vendors that use less packaging material and green shipping policies.
- If you ship items, use biodegradable brown paper as packing material instead of non-biodegradable material such as Styrofoam popcorn.
- Avoid individual packaging by buying items such as coffee, sugar, and creamer in bulk.
- Whenever possible, use digital delivery methods such as email or internal fax to avoid postage, printing, ink, and paper use.
- Copy frugally. Post a sign at the photocopier that says, “Do you really need to make a copy?”
- Add a line at the end of your email signature that says, “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”
- Cut out junk mail and paper subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. As an example, I read the Wall Street Journal online every morning.
- Practice onscreen editing to save printing.
- When you must print, view your document first in Print Preview before printing to save printing mistakes and print double-sided documents.
- Purchase software online and download it to avoid packaging and shipping costs and materials.
- Recycle all office trash. Give each employee two trash cans: one for recycled materials and one for landfill items. Call your city street or sanitation department or recycling program coordinator to find out how to maximize your recycling.
- Read more suggestions in the full article
Click here to read the full article!
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Very interesting I am going to have to pass this post along to friends that have sites that may be able to help you out.