Green tips for every day life!

Being environmentally conscious (and generally, socially conscious) has become fashionable.  And as with all fashion, it has become expensive.  Somewhere between Carbon Credits and Green Roofs, we lost track of the basics.  When I was a wee lad in Elementary school, you didn’t have to go broke and smell of patchouli to save the world. On the contrary, it meant being frugal and being conscious of your actions.  On this first article in our “Green Business” category, I want to explore a few green tips that are not only socially conscious, they also increase your “Green visibility” and will not break the bank.  For now, I start with bringing it back to the basics: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. And you may even save  a few pennies in the process.

1. Ditch Styrofoam

I walk in a meeting, at some ungodly hour like 10 am.  Happily, the person at the desk is nice enough to offer a very welcome cup of coffee.  They come out with a styrofoam cup and packets of sugar and cream. Oh, and one of those plastic stirrer things.  And I’m thinking: Styrofoam? Really?!  Whether there’s any basis to my bias is yet to be determined, and there’s still some debate about the paper vs. styrofoam cup thing, but it is accepted in many circles that styrofoam is just plain bad, with health effects as well as environmental.  I don’t know why but styrofoam still persists. 

2. Ditch the paper and plastic, too

Now consider the alternative: I get a reusable mug with a spoon and a sugar and cream server if I wanted sugar/cream.  Now I think happy thoughts.  I think they care about the environment. I think they think of their work place as something more than a factory.  I think they care about their employees and probably have a rec. room. Chance are the coffee tastes better too.   I get kind of confused when I go to lunch, and they ask whether the food is “for here” or carry-out…only to serve it in the same disposable plastics when I’m eating in.

3. Ditch more paper

Especially in printing.  Generally people still print quite a bit, from shopping lists which will be thrown away in about 3 hours, to a shipping receipt that will be thrown away in two days when the shipment comes in.  Consider the alternatives:

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• save documents to your computer
• Add pages as favorites
• Save emails, so you can search for them later
• Sign up for paperless billing, in the office and at home.
• Strive for a paperless office

4. Print smart, when you print

Back to my coffee meeting. I’m now in the meeting room, drinking my coffee, and the hand outs come out.  Wow! Double sided!  Not only does someone care enough to print double-sided, they also believe that I’m talented enough to read the left side of a handout without getting confused.  Amazing.

Here is another way to reduce paper when you must print.  While I’m at it, use post-consumer recycled paper.

5. Ditch the laser, lose the color

You can get business cards on vegetable ink on recycled paper.  But your day-to-day documents are either printer on an inkjet or a laser printer.  Most inkjet printers today use water-based ink which are already fairly environmentally friendly.  If you have laser printers, look into vegetable-based toner. Further, printing in grey-scale will reduce the amount of waste produced, and resources used. How’s that for the bottom line?

6. Timer-controlled light switches.

I’ve been in several apartment buildings lately which switched their trash chute room lights to these. Brilliant! I wondered how much they saved on electricity by switching.  Replacing your light switch with a timer is perfect for lightly used rooms like storage areas, some bathrooms, etc.  And when the day is over, don’t forget to turn the lights off.

More fancy, but similarly effective, are light- and motion-sensing switches, that turn the lights onand off  automatically.

7. Compact Fluorescent bulbs

These things are amazing and I can’t understand why people use incandescent.  Each bulb can save $30 over its life, and 2,000 times its own weight in greenhouse gasses.  Wow.

8. Fix it.

 One of my favorite topics on this subject is digital cameras.  Digital cameras today produce images no better, and sometimes worse, than they did two years ago.  There’s a push for more and more megapixels in an ever-smaller sensor. The results?  Horrible, noisy pictures.  Two years, I said?  The New York Times has warned about the megapixel craze since 2003.  They ran a similar article in 2006, and another a few weeks ago.  When my camera died, I had two options: sent it to the manufacturer for a repair, at $150.  Or, I could get a newer camera with more megapixels in a smaller sense at a “loyal customer” price of twice that.   So find out what it costs to repair things that work quite well, or better.  May be worth just keeping what you already have.

9. Reuse, recycle, freecycle, donate

Hopefully you already recycle paper, plastic, aluminum…the usuals.  But what to do with electronics?  These contain nasty chemicals that make them illegal to throw in the trash in many areas.  You can always sell them on craigslist, of course.  But consider your local nonprofit, and before you throw it out check out freecycle.org. Also, talk with your vendor about taking back old electronics.  

More at GreenSight technologies. Speaking of electronics, they have their own environmental rating now!

10. Check before you buy

Before you buy electronics, check them out at epeat.net.  EPAA is a rating system, similar to the energy star system, except it strives to evaluate electronics on more than their energy consumption.  Definitely worth checking out.  HP, Dell, Apple, and others are already adopting this young standard.

11. research your vendors

How do your electronics vendors fare?  Look not just at the EPAA rating for an individual unit, but the entire life-cycle of all the products, including taking the old ones back to recycle or dispose safely.  I believe Apple and Dell are pretty strong here.   Last year, Dell recycled over 40,000 tons of unwanted equipment, almost double from a couple of years ago. Apple has had a “take-back” program since 1994. 

Check not only your electronics vendors, but all your vendors. 

12. Create an environmental policy 

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And check your vendors’ policies.  Put yours in an environmental statement, display this prominently on your website. Spread the word.   Here are some links to get you started:

• California’s “Working green” policy guides
• Planing an event? Policies and guidelines to keep it environmentally friendly
• Apple’s Environment page, although not a policy, is a we good example of getting the word out about reducing environmental impact.

 

 

“Green Visibility”

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You choose to be environmentally conscious because it’s the right thing to do.  You feel good that you print less, and you notice that others still print single-sided and double-spaced.  It’s who you are: you are becoming socially conscious, aware of your impact on the world around us, and you take steps to minimize it.  You quietly tell yourself that you’re doing well and will strive to do better.  

I submit, you should not be so quiet.

 Some of your clients or prospects will notice that you’re using mugs and not throwaway cups, sure, and some won’t.  Chances are, none will notice that you switched to vegetable-based ink.  In either case, speak out about what you do!  You can be as subtle or bombastic as you chose to.  But spread the word.  Doing so you up the ante with your competitors, you strengthen the environmental position, you tell the world you care,  and you show your clients or prospects that you provide extra value. 

Next Steps

Hopefully getting used to doing these things will put you on a path for more stringent ideas and policies.  As a company, your next steps will be guided by your social consciousness plan.  This may include a goal to be carbon-neutral in 5 years, or to audit your power usage and buy power from renewable sources only.  It may include a green roof or a rainwater collection system.  The choice is yours

In the meanwhile, there’ll be more posts here.  Did I miss anything?  Don’t just stand there, add a comment!

Peace! порно со взрослыми

Tags: carbon neutral, eco, environment, green

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 3:14 am and is filed under Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.