5 Tips To Go Green And Save At Work
December 13, 2009 by sunshine
Filed under Alternative, Articles
All businesses should be going green in order to save money and the environment. Recognizing how to go green at work a little bit, is valuable. Here are 5 simple tip to help get started;
1. The office printer is one appliance in the work place where you can start learning how to go green at work. You can cut paper usage in half at a single stroke by simply printing on both sides of every sheet of paper. That is one good example of how to go green at work and save money too!
2. Business travel costs a huge fortune. Business travel puts a considerable strain on the planet. The answer? Use video conferencing as much as possible. With a good high speed Internet connection and a decent web cam, you can speak to anyone anywhere in the world, and all at a mere fraction of jet travel.
3. Work from home will cut down on expenses. You heat your home anyway, and as long as you have the necessary communications needed to do your job, then why not work from home!
4. Invoice by email. As in tip number one, you save on paper, and a lot of paper too. Let your customers have the option to pay online if possible. The more you can do electronically that has traditionally been done with paper, the more the planet will benefit, and you will save money too.
5. Use laptops rather than stand alone computers and monitors. A laptop will consume around 50 watts of energy while in use compared to a computer and monitor, which consumes around 270 watts of energy. Also, have all laptops set so that they go to sleep if not used. Screensavers do not save money. Quite the opposite; they use more! How to go green at work and save a lot of money? Switch off all computers and laptops when not in use.
If all businesses apply these tips they would save enough electricity to power the average North American city for one year!

chris on Tue, 12th Jan 2010 8:59 am
I’ve got a great + super simple tip. The next time you’re purchasing a gift card– go for the electronic (and paperless) option, an eGift card. Each year, 75 millions lbs of PVC is dumped into landfills from plastic gift card waste (Plenty Magazine). That’s an astronomical amount of waste for something that can easily and conveniently be sent virtually. PVC is notoriously difficult to recycle and cannot be tossed into the recycling bin along side your other household items. You must send those pesky plastic cards to a PVC recycling plant, the only one I know of is EarthWorks. For a directory of retailers that offer an eGift card, try http://www.giftzip.com …it is the most extensive one I have found to date. Hope that helped.
Great alternative for HR incentives and holiday work gifting.