Get A Greener Office
April 01 2009
Wherever you work—at home, in a water-cooler office or anywhere in between—offices can be incredibly wasteful. Between the coffee cups (BYO), water bottles (SIGG, anyone?), reams of paper (FSC-certified paper, chlorine-free New Leaf Frontier 100 paper is off-set with renewable energy), ink cartridges (most stores will recycle them for you) and post-it notes (use the Stickies program on your Mac or SketchBox on your iPhone and set those reminders digitally, people!), the office is a bastion of eco-unfriendly excess. We’ve got solutions. (And not just in parentheses.)
First up, printing. Social marketing aside, there are times when you just have to print—business cards, envelopes, CD sleeves, you name it. Make sure your professional printer is using recycled paper and eco-friendly ink, like the friendly folks at Blue Dolphin and Greener Printer. While we’re on the paper tip, check the oh-so-cute recycled notepads and planners by LobotoMe. Fabulous for your home office or your cubicle space, they’ll keep you organized and smiling at the same time. You can even offset the impact of your shipping by opting to have a tree planted at checkout!
And speaking of trees, the Wooden USB sticks by OOOMS Studios bring a bit of recycled nature to your workspace. We adore these little virtual sculptures, hand-picked by the artists from the floor of a nearby forest (no trees were harmed, natch) and then crafted into Mac-, Windows- and Linux- compatible thumb drives that can take up to four gigs of data. So cute!
Obviously, if you work in an office building you can’t really control who turns on or off the lights. But you can talk with your office manager about changing out your energy hogging incandescent light bulbs for more efficient LEDs, using non-toxic, Xylene-free, refillable AusPen whiteboard markers, getting recycling bins and investing in GreenPrint software that helps your printer know when it’s unnecessary to print a page. (It’s free for Windows but $29 for Mac. Waddup?)
In your cube, make sure to download EcoFont, a free typeface that uses up to 20% less ink by permeating each letter with tiny holes (yes, you can still read it). Then print on both sides of your paper in Draft mode—an added benefit is that it can speed up your output from 12 pages per minute to 36. Bonus!
A quick flip of your power strip can seriously make a difference. Studies have shown that the average computer’s idle time represents 69 to 97% of its total energy use, so don’t forget to power down and unplug. An easy fix for the forgetful is a Eco-Logical Surge Protector, which detects when you shut down your computer and powers down your peripherals for you.
Moving into the corner office and getting new gear to prove it? Make sure to recycle your cell phones, computer components, CDs and DVDs, and for anything you suspect might make it into the blue bin, check Earth911.org for info.
Enough reading. Get to work!
www.beamingsun.com for the Eco-Logical Surge Protector
