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Make Your Business Greener |
 Way back in school (okay, way back for most of us) we learned the 3 R's: reading, w(r)iting, a(r)ithmetic. Now lets learn a new set of 3 R's, the 3 R's for going green. Recycle, Reduce and Reuse.
These 3 actions can make all of us greener and of course when that happens the whole world will become more and more green.
Recycle: Around the office this will included items such
as plastic bottles (those dreaded water bottles, read here for some
interesting facts http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5279230 ), plastic bags
and glass. In general, we all seem to be getting used to the idea of
separate cans for regular garbage, plastic, glass and even paper. But
here is a list of some additional steps you can take: ·
- Eliminating all
paper waste by including all types of paper
- Keeping track of and
evaluating recycling activities at your business and expanding the
collection by 1-3 materials each year for example. Potential materials
include vinyl, batteries and polystyrene
- If your office is small,
consider combining your recyclables with other small offices nearby
- Don't buy paper that is a contaminant in recycling, e.g. thermal fax
paper, glossy/plastic coatings, plastic windows, bright colors
including goldenrod, laser printer inks, adhesive products
- Print
directly on envelopes rather than using labels
Reduce:There is a
tendency around the office to focus less on reducing consumption of
resources because, well we aren't usually paying for them. But we must
refocus our attention on the global view of our lives and what we
impact and carry the same attitude we have about our at home usage of,
for example, electricity, as we do at the office. There are many things
we can all do at our place of business to reduce usage of resources and
materials, for example:
- Eliminate unnecessary reports and reduce
report size. (this is a win win proposition :)
- Print or copy on both
sides
- Use electronic mail and voice mail
- Switching to compact
fluorescent light bulbs
(http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls )
- Don't use cover
sheets on faxes· lowering your thermostat a few degrees down in the
winter and up a few in the summer
- Enable the "sleep mode" feature on
your computer, allowing it to use less power during periods of
inactivity
- Configure your computer to "hibernate" automatically after
30 minutes or so of inactivity
- Turn out or dim the lights in unused
conference rooms
Reuse:There seems to be a tendancy in all of us
(Americans, especially) to throw things out before they really need to
be. Before you toss it, before you recycle it, or even before you buy a
new one, step back and decide whether you can actually use an item that
you already have or if the item can actaully be repaired. Now these
actions may seem to take more time, and they might, but too often we
come to a snap decision and just toss and buy new without thinking.
Here are some things we can all do to resuse items:
- Reuse envelopes by
placing a label over the old address
- Use reusable containers instead
new plastic bags when you pack a lunch
- Use reusable envelopes for
interoffice mail
- Use cloth napkins or washable rags instead of paper
napkins and paper towels
- Reuse file folders
- Use your own coffee mug
instead of a stryafoam cup
- Investigate whether local libraries,
schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. could use your old trade
journals or magazines
- Donating instead of tossing usable or fixable
items
These are just some simple ideas that we can all do. Plus if we
start doing these things, it will lead to other ideas. It needs to
become a way of life so we really don't have to think about what we are
doing, it just becomes a part of who we are. Together we can all go
green!
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