November 5, 2017 | by The Green Guy
Every day more people are realizing how important “working green” is to the environment. Now that realization is spilling over into the workplace. And for good reason; there are many reports that indicate air pollution continues to increase, and we all know that dirty air chokes the very life out of our planet.
Air pollution doesn’t just harm people, it also destroys the environment and it puts endangered species in even more peril. There’s no question that the rising levels of industrial carbon in the atmosphere is a direct result of human activity.
But you can help stem the tide by greening your home and your job as well. In fact, there are tremendous opportunities for “working green” that will go a long way toward cleaning up the environment if enough of us were to pitch in and help.
Become An Energy Warrior!
Exactly what can you do as an individual at work that can make a difference in the amount of carbon pollution that’s released into the environment? The answer is plenty, and here’s how you can get a good start:
Hire Virtual Assistants – If you’re a hiring manager then you’re in an excellent position to have a major positive impact on the environment. For example, if your employees commute just 30 miles each way to and from work in a vehicle that gets a respectable 30 mpg, that vehicle dumps 9,860 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere annually!
Therefore, if you allowed just two employees to work from home you would remove nearly 20,000 pounds of carbon emissions from the atmosphere each year.1
Use Less Paper – Every business is different, but there’s no doubt that every business uses a great deal of paper. Here are a few easy ways to save trees and reduce your carbon footprint in the office by going green:
- Reduce the default left and right margins in your word processing program from 1.25 inches to 0.75 inches to reduce your paper consumption by as much as 4.75%.2
- Use the duplexing feature of your printer and print on both sides of each sheet of paper and reduce your paper consumption up to 50%.
- Reuse paper that’s printed on only one side by bundling them into notepads.
- Subscribe to a virtual fax machine service such as eFax.com and have all of your faxes come through as eMail to entirely eliminate paper from faxing.
Just think about it.
If your office uses only five cases of paper per month (that’s an astounding 25,000 sheets of paper), and you’re able to cut that amount in half, imagine how many trees you’re saving. Also, imagine how much energy isn’t being used to process those fallen trees to ship paper products to the market.
Use Fewer Ink Cartridges – It goes without saying that if you’re using less paper then you also use fewer ink cartridges and ink toner.
Save Electricity – When you go home each evening, you can save lots of energy (and money) for your company by turning off overhead lights, turn off the coffee pot, shutting down your computer, and turning off your desk lamp. It’s amazing what one person can do when they use a few green living techniques at work!
Working Green at Work Is Just The Beginning
These are just a few of the many ideas that you can employ to save energy and money on your job. Saving money for the company contributes to the bottom line, and that gives you greater job security.
Working green is smart business. Use this website to come up with l00 ways to save energy and money at work and take it to your employer. You may be pleasantly surprised at the amount of recognition you receive for your green lifestyle initiative—and positive recognition from your boss is always a good thing!