Ten Ways to Go Green at the Office

When thinking about ways to reduce your environmental footprint, a great place to start being “green” may be the office, whether at home or at work.

From paper and printers to lights and furniture, there are many ways to make a difference. Going green can be easy and it can become part of your daily routine. There is a wide selection of products that incorporate environmental features, such as recycled content, environmental certifications and environmentally friendly designs to help you go green. Here are 10 easy and affordable ways to reduce your environmental impact at the office:

Eco-Friendly Tips for Any Office
Whether it’s reusing old stationery as scratch paper, setting up a recycle bin for cans and water bottles or separating boxes and newspapers, make sure materials in the office are properly sorted to be recycled.

Take your old computers, monitors, laptops, printers, faxes and all-in-ones to any Staples U.S. store and drop them off at the customer service desk to be recycled. All brands are accepted for recycling regardless of where they were purchased. Staples also provides ink and toner cartridge recycling.

Set up computers and other energy-draining equipment (copiers, fax machines) to go on standby to reduce energy consumption. Consider ENERGY STAR-certified products, which are 50 percent more energy efficient than standard units.

Save materials and important documents digitally on your computer instead of in file cabinets. Consider a printer from the Staples HP EcoEasy line of printers, which use up to 50 percent less paper with double-sided printing.

Turn off equipment at the end of the day or before the weekend starts and unplug equipment until it is needed, since many machines consume energy even in the “off” position.

Replace any incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescent lightbulbs that last up to 10 times longer.

Make over your desk with eco-conscious products. In addition to recycled paper, Staples offers a wide selection of eco-conscious products such as bamboo flash drives and remanufactured toner cartridges.

Use eco-conscious cleaning products when tidying up the office. Staples’ Sustainable Earth® cleaning products provide powerful cleaning action and minimize impacts to the environment.

Look into furniture and cubicles that are Greenguard certified (www.greenguard.org). The materials in these products have been tested for toxic emissions. Products that are under the allowable limits of toxins are defined by the U.S. Green Building Council as Greenguard products.

Carpool to work; if you and a co-worker live by each other, riding to work together will reduce polluting car emissions. If you live close to work, think about walking or riding a bike.

For more information on going green, visit http://www.staples.com/ecoeasy.

Category: Business Tips & Resources