How to Green Your Office and Stay in the Black

As a follow up to last issues article on Going Green Doesn't Have to Take Much Green, Jennifer has provided some of the key ways you can take your office green. Some of these changes can be implimented in minutes, while others may take some preparation before they can be successful. Either way, making the decision and taking the effort to move in the right direction is a commendable and necessary goal to business success.

• Eliminate as many disposable products as you can by investing in dishes and silverware, towels and napkins and having a reuseable bag hanging at the door for anyone making a lunch run or shopping trip. As a reward for a great project, an office espresso machine and some great fair trade coffee would be really appreciated and would save many Starbuck's cups and might even boost productivity.
• Bottled water wastes huge amounts of plastic that take a lot of energy to recycle. In North America, we have some of the cleanest, safest water on the planet right in our taps! Buy a jug-type water filter to put in the fridge or install a permanent one on your faucet. You'll even money on water cooler rental fees and water charges.
• Insist on environmentally friendly cleaning products to protect the health of your employees. Some of the safest cleaners for humans and for the earth are those that are the cheapest too: baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and plain old elbow grease.
• Shut off computers, peripherals, and lights when they aren't in use – or better still, unplug them so they can't draw power in the standby mode. Install an electronic thermostat so that your office is not being heated or cooled when no one is there. Save on electricity, save the earth and save money too!
• Reduce your printing by evaluating whether certain files need to be printed and by printing on both sides of the paper. You'll save on both paper and toner. Buy recycled papers for office use with some of the money you save. The more the marketplace demands recycled paper, the cheaper it will become.
• Reuse packing boxes, envelopes and use shredder strips for padding instead of that ultimate evil – styrofoam. Free is always better!
• Switch to a sustainable web host; all those servers take lots of energy to power. There are several hosting companies that are reducing their ecological footprint by buying carbon offsets, making their own offices more green and even relying exclusively on wind- or solar-generated power. The pricing is comparable to less environmentally friendly companies.
• Encourage a healthier workplace by keeping one or even two communal bikes for short trips and lunch breaks. Consider having on-site exercise yoga classes to reduce stress. You'll save on insurance premiums in the long run and will gain productivity.
• Allow employees to work from home, have flex time where they come into the office later and leave later, or even have four long office days rather than five short ones. These actions help to reduce the amount of cars on the road at any given time and especially the cars in rush-hour, just sitting and burning up fuel. You'll help save non-renewable fossil fuels and help reduce global warming.
• Consider a public transit subsidy for employees if you work in a center that is well served. If not, encourage car pooling to further reduce your office's need for gas.
• When you need to purchase new electronic items, make sure they are Energy Star compliant to reduce your power needs and your electricity bill in the long run. Replace that old fridge! For furniture, consider buying used – Craigslist is full of people trying to offload their stuff.
• Reduce air travel by combining trips, a conference with a client meeting for example, or using conferencing software. If you have several employees to get to one fairly close destination, consider driving instead of flying. Purchase gold standard carbon offsets for all your travel to help encourage alternative energy sources and ultimately reduce our dependence
  on fossil fuels.

Need more? Here are some resources
Treehugger's Guide to Greening your Work
David Suzuki's Nature Challenge - Taking Care of Business
Clean Air Cool Planet's Guide to Consumer Carbon Offsets

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