10 Ways To Go Green At Work

Greener homes are in the spotlight these days, but what about the other places where many of us spend huge chunks of our time--our offices? Some simple changes of habit can save energy and resources at work, and these small steps can be multiplied by persuading the powers-that-be at your workplace to adopt environmentally friendly (and often cost-effective) policies. Here are your additional 10 ways to go green at work:

1. Be bright about light
Artificial lighting accounts for 44 percent of the electricity use in office buildings.

• Make it a habit to turn off the lights when you're leaving any room for 15 minutes or more and utilize natural light when you can.
• Make it a policy to buy Energy Star-rated light bulbs and fixtures, which use at least two-thirds less energy than regular lighting, and install timers or motion sensors that automatically shut off lights when they're not needed.

2. Maximize computer efficiency
Computers in the business sector unnecessarily waste $1 billion worth of electricity a year.

• Make it a habit to turn off your computer—and the power strip it's plugged into—when you leave for the day. Otherwise, you're still burning energy even if you're not burning the midnight oil. (Check with your IT department to make sure the computer doesn't need to be on to run backups or other maintenance.) During the day, setting your computer to go to sleep automatically during short breaks can cut energy use by 70 percent. Remember, screen savers don't save energy.
• Make it a policy to invest in energy-saving computers, monitors, and printers and make sure that old equipment is properly recycled. Look for a recycler that has pledged not to export hazardous e-waste and to follow other safety guidelines. Old computers that still work, and are less than five years old, can be donated to organizations that will refurbish them and find them new homes. (You may even get a tax deduction.)

3. Print smarter
The average U.S. office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year.

• Make it a habit to print on both sides or use the back side of old documents for faxes, scrap paper, or drafts. Avoid color printing and print in draft mode whenever feasible.
• Make it a policy to buy chlorine-free paper with a higher percentage of post-consumer recycled content. Also consider switching to a lighter stock of paper or alternatives made from bamboo, hemp, organic cotton, or kenaf. Recycle toner and ink cartridges and buy remanufactured ones. According to Office Depot, each remanufactured toner cartridge "keeps approximately 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic out of landfills...and conserves about a half gallon of oil."
  

4. Go paperless when possible

• Make it a habit to think before you print: could this be read or stored online instead? When you receive unwanted catalogs, newsletters, magazines, or junk mail, request to be removed from the mailing list before you recycle the item.
• Make it a policy to post employee manuals and similar materials online, rather than distribute print copies. They're easier to update that way too.
  

5. Ramp up your recycling

• Make it a habit to recycle everything your company collects. Just about any kind of paper you would encounter in an office, including fax paper, envelopes, and junk mail, can be recycled. So can your old cell phone, PDA, or pager.
• Make it a policy to place recycling bins in accessible, high-traffic areas and provide clear information about what can and can not be recycled.
  

6. Close the loop

• Make it a policy to purchase office supplies and furniture made from recycled materials.

7. Watch what (and how) you eat

• Make it a habit to bring your own mug and dishware for those meals you eat at the office.
• Make it a policy to provide reusable dishes, silverware, and glasses. Switch to Fair Trade and organic coffee and tea, and buy as much organic and local food as possible for parties and other events. Provide filtered drinking water to reduce bottled-water waste.
  

8. Rethink your travel

• Make it a habit to take the train, bus, or subway when feasible instead of a rental car when traveling on business. If you have to rent a car, some rental agencies now offer hybrids and other high-mileage vehicles.
• Make it a policy to invest in videoconferencing and other technological solutions that can reduce the amount of employee travel.
  

9. Reconsider your commute

• Make it a habit to carpool, bike, or take transit to work, and/or telecommute when possible. If you need to drive occasionally, consider joining a car-sharing service like Zipcar and Flexcar instead of owning your own wheels.
• Make it a policy to encourage telecommuting (a nice perk that's also good for the planet!) and make it easy for employees to take alternative modes of transportation by subsidizing commuter checks, offering bike parking, or organizing a carpool board.
  

10. Create a healthy office environment

• Make it a habit to use nontoxic cleaning products. Brighten up your cubicle with plants, which absorb indoor pollution.
• Make it a policy to buy furniture, carpeting, and paint that are free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and won't off-gas toxic chemicals.

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Green Printing: A Cost Effective Path to Environmental Friendliness (Part II)

Green Printing: A Better Solution

Green printing is seen to be the better, safer alternative that will allow the printing industry to become friendlier to the environment. There are many ways by which green printing can help alleviate the environmental crisis.

Reversal of Forest Denudation

Green printing forces companies to look for other sources of materials to produce paper aside from pulp processed from trees. As stated above, the creation of virgin paper is a huge contributor to the denudation of forests.

Through efforts of advocacy groups, other sources have been found for use as raw materials for making paper. These sources are more environmentally sustainable. Moreover, they yield paper products that are as durable and as high in quality as virgin paper. Among these new sources of raw paper materials are hemp, synthetics and reclaimed blue jean cotton (Hart 2005).

And then, there is always recycled paper and post-consumer waste (PCW) paper. Benson defines recycled paper as: "paper that contains different grades (10-100%) of recycled paper fibers. On the other hand, PCW paper is "recycled after used by a consumer and thrown away."

Reducing dependency on Petroleum

The second benefit is that green printing reduces dependence on petroleum which is a non-renewable resource. Petroleum is almost everywhere in the traditional printing process. It is used to power the printing presses and other equipment used in printing and in producing paper. Inks used in printing are often based on petroleum. The glues and adhesives utilized in binding paper are also derived from petroleum (Cook 2006).

Green printers are now making use of computers and equipment that are more energy-efficient. A few have even come to use wind-powered or solar-powered presses. Soy-based ink is also becoming a staple among companies that make use of green printing practices (Hart 2005).

Reducing Toxins and Waste materials release

Third, green printing reduces the levels of toxins and waste materials being released back into the environment. With green printers veering away from materials that release toxic chemicals and VOCs to the environment, which lead to health problems among workers in printing presses and the general populace, there is hope that these problems will eventually go away.

While the solutions that green printing poses are not as dramatic at first glance as one might expect them to be, their impact over time indeed promises to be fruitful. What is needed, however, is a conscious effort to practice green printing continuously and consistently.

Companies and Individuals can both benefit from Green Printing

As great as green printing may sound, what benefit does it actually hold for companies and individuals? Are these benefits enough to entice them to practice green printing?

The concept of green printing has been around for a number of years now, and while an increasing number of companies are embracing the practice, there still exist a number of myths and misconceptions about it.

One misconception about green printing is that recycled or PCW paper is not as good in quality as virgin paper, nor is it as durable. That is certainly not true. Not all recycled or PCW paper products are brown in color. There are types of processes that can make them appear as white and as durable as virgin paper (Cook 2005).

Another myth held by the majority of the public is that the usage of recycled or PCW will not yield high-quality printouts, unlike those made with virgin paper. Again, this is not true. A printout made with recycled or PCW paper can be virtually indistinguishable from a printout using virgin paper.

A third myth about green printing is that it is more expensive than regular printing. While it is true that green printing can sometimes cost more, the reason for this merely has to do with supply and demand (Cook 2005). Presently, the demand for recycled and PCW paper is not as high as the demand for virgin paper is. When the demand for recycled and PCW paper becomes higher than virgin paper, a lowering in costs can be seen, because producing recycled and PCW paper costs less and consumes less energy.

Moreover, printing companies that are dedicated to green printing take the time to educate their clients about the merits and cost-efficiency of green printing. They even go so far as to suggest how to decrease the cost of the printing jobs commissioned from them.

Besides being environmentally conscious, going green can help to reduce printing costs. It should be noted; however, that green printing is not just about the paper being used but also how the paper and the equipment for printing on paper are used.

A common practice in green printing is reducing the margins and spaces on printed documents, as well as compressing or eliminating filler pages like title pages or the table of contents. Using both sides of the paper is also desirable in green printing. In doing so, less paper is consumed, and thus, a decrease in the cost of maintaining a paper supply is seen.

Makower asserted that the best practice in green printing is no printing. Digitalization, the creation of portable document files (PDFs), and paperless communication through emails and instant messaging are still the most environmentally-sustainable and cost-effective practices that people can adopt.

Conclusion

But inasmuch as people and companies still cannot totally eliminate paper from their daily usage, green printing presents itself as a viable alternative. Green printing is not only an exercise in environmental responsibility, but it is also an effective means of bringing down costs of office supplies. If people and companies cannot worry too much about the environment, then the cost-effectiveness of green printing will at least get their attention.

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Help Save Mother Earth : Recycle Your Old Cell Phones

Some people doesn't care and doesn't know that old cell phone, PDA, cell phone batteries, chargers, and other accessories need and or should be recycled. Why?

Cell phones and accessories are made from valuable resources such as precious metals, copper, and plastics - all of which require energy to extract and manufacture. Recycling cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions, keeps valuable material out of landfills and incinerators, and conserves natural resources.

Aside from that, cell phones contain toxic metals that can pollute the environment and threaten human health. When recycled responsibly, the metals can be put back into circulation, decreasing the need for new metal mining.

Recycling your phone recovers valuable materials and helps save energy! This will results in significant environmental savings and can benefit those in need. Imagine recycling just a million cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 33 cars off the road for a year.

Below is a diagram that illustrates the Cell Phone Life Cycle:

Some NGOs in America and Canada like EPA and their Plug-In To eCycling have already started their campaign on simple Cell Phone Recycling and many of the major cell phone retailers (both cell phone stores and big box retailers) will take back your old cell phone to recycle.

Where to Recycle Your Cell Phone

Drop It Off

Drop off your old cell phone, PDA, cell phone batteries, chargers, or other accessories at one of the retailers or service providers below. Visit the links for detailed drop-off and collection event information.

AT&T * Best Buy * Office Depot

Sony Ericsson * Sprint * Staples

T-Mobile * LG Electronics * Verizon Wireless

Note: EPA does not endorse the commercial services or products of its Plug-In To eCycling partners. All the previous links exit the EPA site

Mail It In
Mail in your old cell phone, PDA, cell phone batteries, chargers, or other accessories at one of the retailers or service providers below. Visit the links for detailed drop-off and collection event information.

Nokia * Sprint * Samsung

T-Mobile * Motorola * LG Electronics

Verizon Wireless * Sony Ericsson

Note: EPA does not endorse the commercial services or products of its Plug-In To eCycling partners. All the previous links exit the EPA site.

Don't Forget:

• Before you drop off or mail in your old cell phone, make sure that you have terminated your service contract for the phone and erased any data in the phone.

• To ensure that personal information is cleared from the phone, you can: manually delete all information and remove the SIM card; contact your service provider or phone manufacturer for instructions; or use a data erasing tool such as ReCellular's Cell Phone Data Eraser

YOU CAN MAKE MONEY OUT OF THIS JUNK STUFF!

Scott S. Andrews, has been into recycling business for 30 years discovered Cell Phone Recycling Business, an unknown business opportunity by most people worldwide. He will guide you all the way how to profit out of used cell phones/PDA recycling.

Don't Trash Your Cell Phone -- Recycle It!

Help keep toxic metals out of the environment and make money.

Did You Know?

Recycling all of the 100 million cell phones

ready for end of life management in the US

would save enough energy to power more

than 19,500 US households with electricity

for one year!

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What Is Greenhouse and Greenhouse Effect?

The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases. See animation on how enhancing greenhouse effect likely contribute to global warming.

Have you ever seen a greenhouse? Most greenhouses look like a small glass house. Greenhouses are used to grow plants, especially in the winter. Greenhouses work by trapping heat from the sun. The glass panels of the greenhouse let in light but keep heat from escaping. This causes the greenhouse to heat up, much like the inside of a car parked in sunlight, and keeps the plants warm enough to live in the winter.

The Earth’s atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up.

The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals.

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Tips On What You Can Do To Help Protect Ozone Layer

The ozone layer in the Earth's atmosphere protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun, but it is at risk of depletion. This article explains the problem, what is causing it, the international and local efforts to reduce the production and use of ozone depleting chemicals, and how you can help to protect the ozone layer.

Ozone Layer Depletion
The ozone layer is a shield of ozone gas in the stratosphere, between 15 and 35 km above the Earth's surface. The result of a reaction between ultraviolet light from the Sun and oxygen molecules, it stops most ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching us. However, in 1975 scientists detected a severe drop in ozone levels over Antarctica that repeated each Spring, and by 1987 half of the ozone over the continent had disappeared, creating an enormous "hole" twice the size of the United States. This "hole" in the ozone layer threatens the Earth's environmental balance and human health, with increased cases of skin cancer, eye cataracts and damage to the immune system.

Cases of Ozone Layer Depletion
The stratosphere is being depleted of ozone by man-made chemicals including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons, methyl chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, methyl bromide, hydrobromofluorocarbons (HBFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). These chemicals are commonly used as cooling agents for refrigerators and air-conditioners, propellants for aerosol sprays, blowing agents in the manufacture of foam and some plastics, fire retardants for extinguishers and in cleaning agents and solvents in industries. In other words, they are widely used in our everyday lives.

What You Can Do?

Although most ozone depleting substances are used in industry and commerce, what you do at home can still make a difference. The most effective way of protecting the ozone layer is to reduce or even stop using ozone depleting chemicals. You can do this by:

• buying air-conditioners that do not use HCFCs or CFCs as refrigerants;
• regularly inspecting and maintaining your air-conditioners and refrigeration appliances to minimise refrigerant leaks;
• recovering and recycling HCFCs and CFCs in air-conditioners and refrigeration appliances when they are serviced; replacing and retrofitting such equipment to operate on non-HCFC and non-CFC refrigerant should also be considered.
  

Overall, the best way to help protect the ozone layer is to stop buying all products, big and small, that contain ozone depleting substances. Together we can make a difference.

HELP SAVE MOTHER EARTH!

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9 Easy Tips To Save Mother Earth

Here are a few tips from David de Rothschild that can help people save money as well as be environmentally friendly:

Replace a Lightbulb
If one million homes replaced four of their traditional incandescent bulbs with Energy-Star approved compact fluorescent bulbs (the ones that look like soft-serve ice cream cones), 900,000 tons of greenhouse gasses would be eliminated, and people would save approximately $30 to $50 dollars in electricity over the life of the bulb for each bulb they replace.

Kill Phantom Power
Even when most household appliances are turned off, their standby modes continue to suck power that wastes electricity and increases your electric bill. The worst offenders are cell phone chargers, where only 5% of the power they draw is used to charge your phone, while the other 95% is wasted when left plugged in. What to do? Unplug your cell phone charger when you aren't using it, and plug all of your big appliances (especially TV's and home entertainment equipment) into an easy-to-reach power strip that you can turn off when you aren't using them.

TV's and VCR's in standby mode waste an estimated $1 billion dollars in electricity each year, but if one million households halved their phantom power load, we'd eliminate 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Put On a Sweater
By lowering your thermostat by just 2 degrees in the winter, you'll save up to 4% on your energy bill, and prevent 500 lbs. of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. Plus, as David writes, the more people who wear sweaters, the happier Jimmy Carter will be.

Paper or Plastic? Neither!
We've long been told to ask for paper instead of plastic bags at the grocery store, but the truth is, although paper bags are biodegradable, the waste of resources used to produce them makes paper almost as big a drain on the environment as plastic bags are. What to do? While paper is still preferable to plastic, the best option is to bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store, be they canvas or nylon or hemp, and skip paper or plastic altogether.

Lobby Your Hotel
In a given year, a single hotel room uses more than 80,000 gallons of water and generates 5 tons of garbage. Given that there are approximately 3.3 million hotel rooms in the U.S., hotels generate a lot of waste, and that's not even counting the near-continual use of air conditioning in every room. How do we do our part? Many hotels now offer guests the option to use one set of linens and towels during their stay. If one million people used just one set of linens for a week, it would save 1.5 million gallons of water.

Build a Straw Home
Building a home using straw insulation instead of traditional building materials will cut heating and cooling costs, reducing your energy usage by two-thirds. If one million households halved their gas-heating bill, 2.75 million tons of carbon dioxide would be eliminated per year.

Harvest the Sun
If one million homes installed solar panels on their roof and switched to solar power, we could reduce C02 emissions by 4.3 million tons a year. Currently, it is an expensive investment, costing over $20,000 to install solar panels on the roof of your home. However, homeowners can save potentially hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year in electricity costs; most people will still be connected to the power grid, and will simply use the traditional electricity as auxiliary power.

Install a Windmill
If 100,000 homes installed and relied on wind power, C02 production could be reduced by 900,000 tons. The cost of installing a wind turbine starts at $7,000, and an average wind speed of 10mph is required to generate an adequate amount of power.

Drive a Frybrid
For between $500 and $1000, you can convert the engine your old Mercedes diesel sedan to run on used french-fry grease (aka vegetable oil). According to David, more than one million gallons of fuel could be made from waste vegetable oil collected from restaurants in San Francisco alone.

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10 Things We Can Do To Help Save The Earth

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As a forester by profession, i almost forgot being one. I have already created 4 blogs, though all of them are new and being new to this line, a connection to my profession is not the first thing that came into my mind. Wow what a ryhme. So before i forgot, let me share with you my knowledge, skills and experiences on this field. I cannot be sharing with you the whole content of the books but rather the simple things, tips and ways and means to help keep our our environment clean and green in the least way we can do.

I have started on my 1st posting on how to celebrate holidays while keeping our environment clean. So, today lets have 10 things we can do every day to help reduce greenhouse gases and make a less harmful impact on the environment. Taking care of the Earth is not just a responsibility -- it's a privilege. Lets keep it our mind - it is a privilege. Imagine even if only 50% of the population worldwide alone will do these little things daily - how much help we contribute in saving our environment from destruction! It's never too late to start!

Here are the little things we can do:

1.­ Pay attention to how you use water. The little things can make a big difference. Every time you turn off the water while you're brushing your teeth, you're doing something good. Got a leaky toilet? You might be wasting 200 gallons of water a day [Source: EPA]. Try drinking tap water instead of bottled water, so you aren't wasting all that packaging as well. Wash your clothes in cold water when you can.

2. Leave your car at home. If you can stay off the road just two days a week, you'll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,590 pounds per year [Source: EPA]. Combine your errands -- hit the post office, grocery store and shoe repair place in one trip. It will save you gas and time.

3. Walk or ride your bike to work, school and anywhere you can. You can reduce greenhouse gases while burning some calories and improving your health. If you can't walk or bike, use mass transit or carpool. Every car not on the road makes a difference.

4. Recycle.You can help reduce pollution just by putting that soda can in a different bin. If you're trying to choose between two products, pick the one with the least packaging. If an office building of 7,000 workers recycled all of its office paper waste for a year, it would be the equivalent of taking almost 400 cars off the road [Source: EPA].

5. Compost. Think about how much trash you make in a year. Reducing the amount of solid waste you produce in a year means taking up less space in landfills, so your tax dollars can work somewhere else. Plus, compost makes a great natural fertilizer. Composting is easier than you think.

6. Change your light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) last 10 times longer than a standard bulb and use at least two-thirds less energy. If you're shopping for new appliances or even home electronics, look for ENERGY STAR products, which have met EPA and U.S. Department of Energy guidelines for energy efficiency. In 2006, the ENERGY STAR program saved energy equivalent to taking 25 million cars off the road and saved Americans $14 billion in utility costs [Source: ENERGY STAR]. (Learn more about proper disposal of CFLs.)

7. Make your home more energy efficient (and save money). Clean your air filters so your system doesn't have to work overtime. Get a programmable thermostat so you aren't wasting energy when you aren't home. When you go to bed, reduce the thermostat setting -- you won't miss those extra degrees of heat or air conditioning while you're asleep.

8. Maintain your car. Underinflated tires decrease fuel economy by up to three percent and lead to increased pollution and higher greenhouse gas emissions [Source: EPA]. Underinflation also increases tire wear, so it will save you money in the long run if you're good about checking your tire pressure.

9. Drive smarter. Slow down -- driving 60 miles per hour instead of 70 mph on the highway will save you up 4 miles per gallon. [Source: Consumer Guide Automotive]. Accelerating and braking too hard can actually reduce your fuel economy, so take it easy on the brakes and gas pedal.

10.Turn off lights when you're not in the room and unplug appliances when you're not using them. It only takes a second to be environmentally conscious.

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