Are you old enough to remember when Kermit The Frog sang “It’s not easy being green?” If not, then you are probably young enough to find Kermit’s song in a YouTube video in 10 seconds or less. Contrary to the words of our old friend from Sesame Street, now it really IS easy to be green, even in the office. Here are 10 tips to help you get started:
1. Buy Office Green Products
Look for products that are made from recycled materials. Take a minute to read the labels, and you will find that there are many office products available that are in their second life.
2. Ship Office Materials In Bulk Quantities
To reduce the amount of packaging materials that you use, ship a group of items together, rather than individually packaged. You can apply this tip when you are shipping to a customer, or when you are buying supplies online.
3. Reuse Office Furniture
Buying gently used office furniture will save trees, and will also save you money. How very green! When it’s time to change your furniture, make sure to donate rather than dump anything that can be reused in someone else’s office space.
4. Install Compact Florescent Light Bulbs At Your Office Suites
Have you counted the number of light bulbs in your office? Changing out light bulbs to compact florescent light bulbs will help save energy, and save on the electric bill.
5. Power Down Office Lights
When you are not using lights, technology, or anything that uses energy, turn it off. Lights can be put on a timer or sensor to turn off automatically when nobody is in the room, and much of your technology has a sleep mode that uses less energy when it is not in use.
6. Contain Your Office Energy
Fix any broken seals on doors, windows, vents or anywhere that air can escape. This will ensure that you are only heating and cooling your office, and not the great outdoors.
7. Print With A Purpose At Your Office
To save paper, only print what you need. Whenever possible print on both sides of the paper, or better yet, work with electronic copies whenever you can.
8. Recycle Office Materials
There are some things that need to be printed, so make sure you recycle when you are done with printed copies. Place a recycling bin next to the trash can to make recycling easy for everyone in the office. Recycling isn’t just for paper! Earth911.com will help you find ways to recycle other office materials as well.
9. Don’t Take A Break From Making Your Office Green
Evaluate your office break room to see if there are ways that you can go green. Recycle beverage cans or bottles, and bring in reusable plates and utensils if possible. Make sure that you are going green even when you are on a break.
10. Get your Office Coworkers Involved
Going green is a group effort. Talk up going green with others in your office to get them on board. Acknowledge the national celebrations such as Earth Day and Energy Awareness Month, and use these events to start good green habits.
These 10 tips are easy to implement, will save the earth’s natural resources, and will also save you money. Give your office the green light to go green today!
