Turning Your Office into a Green Place to Work

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a typical business office employee generates 1.5 pounds of waste paper every day. With the emphasis on "going green" it is more important than ever to adopt a "paperless office". Here are ten steps to reduce your impact on the environment

• Use both sides.
  
  • Make double sided copies, which will cut consumption in half.
    
• New life for old paper. Use shredded paper to pack materials.
  
  • Use sides of paper that have not been used for draft paper.
    
• Don't have a nervous breakdown.
  
  • Breakdown boxes and reuse them for sending packages back out.
    
• Choose the draft.
  
  • Print in "draft" mode. It saves ink.
    
• Go black and white.
  
  • Save ink and print in black and white as often as possible.
    
• Donate outdated computers and supplies to schools or nonprofit organizations.
  
• Buy refillable ink cartridges and recycled toner. Consider trying some papers made with recycled products such as hemp, bamboo or organic cotton.
  
• Build virtual filing cabinets.
  
  • Don't distribute paper. Encourage emailing and organized digital filing.
    
• PDF
  
  • Put handbooks and manuals online.
    
• Power down.
  
  • Turn your computer off at the end of the day and on weekends. You can save as much as 50% of energy use.
    

    
    

Inspired by Smart Business Ideas Magazine, July 2008