Every business, small or large, should be considering how to go green at work in order to save money and help the planet at the same time. Workers can be very wasteful at work, possibly because they are often not held responsible for their carelessness, or perhaps because the company hasn’t done a good job of creating an atmosphere of conservation and recycling. Knowing how to go green at work, even in small ways, is invaluable. Here are 5 simple tips to help you get going..
1. The office printer is a great place to start learning how to go green at work. As you know, paper comes from trees, and trees absorb carbon dioxide, preventing it from accumulating in the atmosphere and contributing to the greenhouse effect. You can cut paper use in half immediately by simply printing on both sides of every piece of paper. This is just one simple example of how to go green at work and save money too!
2. Cut back or eliminate costly business travel. Business travel costs a huge fortune every year. Instead of traveling by bicycle or walking to meetings, business people often travel in large fuel-guzzling airplanes or along expressways in comfortable automobiles. The problem: Business travel places a significant strain on our planet. The solution: Use video conferencing or virtual meeting software such as “Go To Meeting” whenever possible. With a reliable high speed Internet connection and a nice web cam, you can meet with anyone anywhere in the world for a fraction of the cost of air travel or expensive, unnecessary car trips.
3. Work from home. This is becoming an increasingly popular method of how to go green at work by cutting back on office expenses. You’re already heating and cooling your home, and as long as you possess the necessary tools needed to perform your job and can prove that you can be equally productive, then why not work from home? If you’re not sure how to approach your boss about working from home, buy a copy of Tim Ferris’s best-selling book The 4-Hour Work Week
4. Bill customers by email or by using one of the many easy-to-use web based invoicing services. This is one of the simplest ways to go green at work. As in the first tip we discussed, this will literally save you and your company tons of paper. Give your customers the ability to pay online whenever possible. The more things you can do to replace traditionally paper-intensive processes at work with electronic methods, the more you’ll be helping the planet heal (and save a boatload of money, too!)
5. Use laptops instead of desktop computers and monitors. A laptop consumes about 50 watts of energy while in use (although this is constantly decreasing) compared to a desktop computer and monitor, which consumes around 270 watts of electricity. Also, adjust all laptops to “go to sleep” if idle for more than 15 minutes. Some companies use screensavers, but these actually end up costing more money because the screen is still on and active do not save money. Another way to leverage your company’s computers go green at work and save a lot of money: Simply turn off all computers and laptops when not in use. Sometimes the simplest or smallest things make the biggest difference.
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