The ‘Green’ Office
17 easy tips for improving your company’s environmental impact, while saving money—from choosing printing and office papers to adapting electricity usage and travel practices, and more.
December 2007 By Jennifer Gerholdt“Greening” your office will have a significant positive impact on the environment, is easy to do and can actually save you money. Here are a number of quick, simple ways to make your office more sustainable.
Paper & Printing
U.S. businesses use about 21 million tons of paper every year—that’s about 175 pounds of paper per person. This amounts to more than 50 million acres of land that is cleared annually to satisfy the growing demand for wood and paper products. To cut back:
1. Explore your options in environmentally friendly printing papers. Virtually all paper manufacturers can include recycled content in the publication paper you need. The recycled paper market is experiencing the same pricing fluctuations as the virgin-fiber paper market. Publishers should invest time in communicating with several paper suppliers and merchants about their environmental paper options, and be open to having their paper specifications evolve over time in order to mitigate price increases. For example, talk with your supplier about slightly lighter basis weights that will increase your paper yield for your purchasing dollar with slight to no discernible difference in your publication’s look. Your readers won’t know the difference, and you’ll save money on paper and postage costs.
To determine which environmental papers fit your specifications, contact the Magazine PAPER Project (www.MagazinePaper.org), a nonprofit that provides free technical assistance and expertise to publishers interested in switching to recycled paper.
For in-office paper use:
2. Print on both sides.
3. Purchase recycled office paper, such as Cascades Enviro100 Copy paper.
4. Recycle used office paper.
5. Distribute documents via e-mail.
Transportation
Transportation comprises 28 percent of America’s energy use, with nearly all of that energy coming from oil. Burning fossil fuels results in air, water and land pollution, loss of wildlife habitat and oil spills. To encourage more sustainable transportation:
6. Provide employees with public transportation stipends. For those who prefer to bike to work, offer bike parking and showers.
7. Start a carpooling program.
8. Promote the use of energy-efficient vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. In select cities, car-sharing companies such as Zipcar (www.Zipcar.com) are available, in which members pay an hourly rate that includes gas, insurance and maintenance.
9. Offer employees the option of telecommuting.
Electronics
The electronics-manufacturing process requires extensive electricity, raw materials and water. Electronics account for billions of pounds of municipal waste each year, many of which contain toxic heavy metals, lead, polychlorinated biphenyl, mercury, acids and other harmful contaminants. To reduce your impact:
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