Turn Your Home Office Green
August 6th, 2008 categories: Around the House, Going Green
Home offices present a few challenges when it comes to being eco-friendly, mainly relating to energy and paper. Jennifer Roberts, the author of Good Green Homes, has come up with a few simple ways to save trees, conserve energy, and reduce the carbon footprint of your home office. Here are her seven tips, which were posted on This Old House:
1. Reduce paper use. Print only the emails and documents that you really need, and make double-sided printouts when possible. Subscribe to digital newsletters, opt out of paper billing, and register for online banking. “If you need to transmit a signed document, scan and email it instead of printing and faxing it,” says Roberts.
2. Reuse paper. Hold onto one-sided printouts and use them as notepaper. If you subscribe to magazines or printed newsletters, consider donating them to your local library or passing them on to a local salon or dentist’s office when you’re through with them.
3. Recycle paper. Keep a recycling bin right next to your regular trash container. “And, don’t just recycle—close the loop by buying recycled-content office products,” says Roberts. Recycled paper, envelopes, and packaging material are competitively priced at office supply stores.
4. Buy Energy Star equipment. “If you’re buying new office equipment, look for products with the Energy Star label. They’re designed to save a lot more energy than products without the label,” says Roberts. Keep in mind, that using less energy means your saving money, too.
5. Set your machinery to power-saving modes. According to Energy Star, you can save up to $75 per computer by activating system hibernate features and/or turning the power off on your equipment. Energy Star also suggests hitting the power button on your monitor when it’s not in use: leaving a monitor running with a screensaver activated can burn up to twice as much energy.
6. Use compact fluorescents. When considering options to light your office, choose compact fluorescents over incandescent bulbs. “They use 75% less energy and last 8 to 10 years,” says Roberts. Also, invest in a good task light on your desk so that you can kill the overhead lights when possible.
7. Buy sustainable or used furnishings. “Reusing furniture is a lot easier on the planet than buying new,” says Roberts. Visit FreeCycle.org to view listings posted by people looking to promote reuse by exchanging various goods. If you can’t find anything you like on the used market, go with a sustainable manufacturer. You can find information on sustainable furniture manufacturers at the Sustainable Furniture Council’s website.
Thanks for posting these great office greening tips! One of the most important and easiest things to adopt is a Recycled Paper purchasing policy in which your office commits to purchasing paper that is at least 30% Post-Consumer Recycled. Another great way to save energy and help the environment by using eco-friendly printing. We recommend Green Print, a software program that can help you eliminate unnecessary pages and images during printing.
For more tips on ways to green your office, you can also visit our site at http://www.thegreenoffice.com