Reducing and Reusing Paper at Work
Monday April 30th 2007, 9:38 am
Filed under:
tips
We run a tight environmental ship here, possibly because I’m a bit of a what the neighbors call an “eco-freak.” I’m married to someone who refuses to buy anything made in China, so we buy nothing new at all. And we live and work in 600 square feet. I’ll stop there because that’s enough for people to start throwing things at my glass house (I will admit that we installed heat and air conditioning). In any case, I’ve written a few tips for reducing and reducing paper. (And Boy in the Bands has more tips for greening your office, Ms. Kitty has tips for greening your lifestyle, and Mom to the Left has other green lifestyle tips.)
Average cost of a wasted page $0.06
Average employee prints 6 wasted pages per day, that’s 1,410 wasted pages per year!
The average U.S. office worker prints 10,000 pages per year
Yes, that was 10,000 pages per year. Good Lord. So here are my tips.
Don’t Print at All This is my primary strategy. I only print information that I absolutely need to see in print. This means printed information is either something I have to copyedit or writing guidelines, which I like to keep by my side. The upside to this is I can turn off the printer and fax machine and save some energy.
Duplex Duplexing does require some minor knowledge of electronics. I write a community newsletter for the water company that I print on the front and back. It requires a bare minimum amount of knowledge about how the printer works to know how to feed in the paper correctly (face down, in this case). But you can duplex print at work on the copy machine. That would use half the amount of paper.
Use Recycled Paper I often print on paper that people send me that often has printing on only one side. As an editor, this is actually a substantial amount of paper. I also purchase recycled paper from Staples, when I buy paper.
Use Scratch Paper Periodically I have something to solve that involves a lot of math. I use all the weird folded or otherwise unusable paper and envelopes for that sort of work.
Other ideas for reducing and reusing paper?
Eco-Friendly Options at the HD
Wednesday April 18th 2007, 8:20 am
Filed under:
tips
Home Depot will label its 2500 eco-friendly options with this label, beginning on Earth Day. What’s an eco-friendly option? Well, I like to use diatomaceous earth to keep ants out of my house rather than poison. But I would usually have a hard time finding it at the HD. I also like to sow with organic seeds (not genetically modified). And use non-volatile organic compound paint. This sort of product will now be labeled at Home Depot.
I’m pleased by this development. You’ll recall that less than a decade ago, Home Depot had all sorts of boycotts against it for unsustainable practices. So whether this is some greenwashing or a turnaround on their part, I’ll feel okay about spending my Home Depot gift cards from Christmas on some CFL bulbs. Except they’re giving those away (on Earth Day, April 22).
Via Earth Times and Sustainable is Good
Can you survive 24 hours without your computer?
Friday March 23rd 2007, 10:02 am
Filed under:
tips
It’s World Shutdown Day on Saturday, March 24, 2007.
I’m keeping the computer off, writing longhand in my journal, and gardening. All without the aid of electricity.
Treehugger has some more tips to expand
World Shutdown Day to a Day Without Electricity. Unplug your sources of
phantom load (e.g., cell phone charger, lamps that aren’t on, random items that you leave plugged in, but don’t use).
Things Made Out of Poo
Friday March 23rd 2007, 9:05 am
Filed under:
tips
Well, god bless me. I’ve come across the Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company, and I can think of any number of people who deserve paper made out of poo.
Now, it is odorless, and recycled, of course. A remarkable process of drying and cleaning. I suppose it wouldn’t go over well as a business gift though. “Remember the freelancer who gave us paper made out of poo? Let’s not hire her again.”
But, perhaps my friends would be more open to gifts of this nature. Or possibly it’s a gift you can only buy for yourself.
The journals seem very reasonably priced as does the stationary. Think of the possibilities. I could make all sorts of poo jokes about my own writing, and the writing paper….
Via Boing Boing
Netflix: A model of sustainable business
Friday February 16th 2007, 10:07 am
Filed under:
tips
I’m not sure what took us so long to switch to Netflix to rent movies, but it may have been some work ethic that said if we wanted the “pleasure” from a rented movie, then we had to face the “punishment” first (drive to the store (10 miles round trip) and pick it out ourselves amid the screaming children.) Now that we’ve been Netflix customers for a few months, I’m not sure how we lived without it.
Alex Steffen in Use Community: Smaller Footprints, Cooler Stuff, and More Cash on World Changing describes Netflix as a model of a sustainable business idea:
Most of us don’t think of it this way, but this DVD-by-mail service is actually a great model of sustainability innovation. Consider: when many North Americans want to watch a movie at home, they get in their cars, drive to a big box store, park in a huge parking lot, shop for an available title under the hot lights with the HVAC whooshing air around above them, pay for their film, drive home, watch their film and then repeat the process.
When I watch a Netflix movie, though, I drive nowhere. The postal carrier is already coming to my house to drop of my other mail, so the added effort to get me my movie is negligible. I still get to see Lethal Smoking Gun With a Vengeance 4 or whatever, but my drives to and from the store, and even the store itself, have been dematerialized. The DVD itself is unchanged, yet my movie sits more lightly on the planet.
The other great benefit for us is that we can see foreign films and independent films, which our local video store didn’t stock at all and seemed hesitant to order. So, in a sense, we’re paying to see movies that are more keeping with our own value system.
Read more green ideas about ways to use community in your work and home life at Use Community: Smaller Footprints, Cooler Stuff, and More Cash.
We run a tight environmental ship here, possibly because I’m a bit of a what the neighbors call an “eco-freak.” I’m married to someone who refuses to buy anything made in China, so we buy nothing new at all. And we live and work in 600 square feet. I’ll stop there because that’s enough for people to start throwing things at my glass house (I will admit that we installed heat and air conditioning). In any case, I’ve written a few tips for reducing and reducing paper. (And Boy in the Bands has more tips for greening your office, Ms. Kitty has tips for greening your lifestyle, and Mom to the Left has other green lifestyle tips.)
