Tips for an Eco-friendly Office

By Scarlet

Creating an eco-friendly office is a fun and rewarding experience. Whether you work from home or simply manage your bills from a home office space, your eco-friendly choices can make a big difference. While reducing pollution and waste, you can add your personal eco-friendly flair and you may even find some savings when you go green!

Here are a few ideas that you can incorporate into “greening” your work space:

1.    Use eco-friendly papers. You can chose from recycled paper and even tree-free papers such as mango, banana, and sugar cane. These eco-friendly papers come in printing reams or in notebooks and notepads.  

2.    Use less ink and paper. Of course, using less is not only eco-friendly but also saves you money so think before you hit the print button. Use electronic copies of documents when possible instead of printing them out. Use e-mail and pay bills online when possible, instead of printing a letter and envelope and mailing which has its own carbon footprint in travel.

3.    Recycle office paper, used toner cartridges, and used inkjet printer cartridges. Recycle4Charity.com is just one site where you can request free boxes and prepaid UPS labels to donate your materials to a charity of your choice.

4.    Look for the Energy Star label. When purchasing office electronics to know that the products meet superior energy efficiency standards and will save you money on your electric bill.

5.    Remember to turn off your office electronics when not in use. All cords with an electric box on them are sucking energy even when they are not powered on. Plugging office electronics into a power strip and flipping it off after you have powered off your machines will help keep you from having to unplug each machine and save you energy and money at the same time.

6.    Buy eco-friendly pens. There are lots of green pen options these days- recycled paper pens, recycled plastic pens, corn bio plastic pens, and even bamboo pens. When you buy recycled paper products, you help keep waste out of landfills, use less energy and save some trees!

7.    Use eco-friendly lights. CFL bulbs earn the energy star rating. The may cost a bit more when purchasing but they use about 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs (energystar.gov) so you will save energy and money on your electric bill.

8.    You may want to add some green to your desk space too! Plants help improve your indoor air quality and bring a little cheer into your space.  

I hope these eco-friendly office suggestions help get you started. I would love to hear any tips on what has worked for you in greening your office! What are you going to try out?