Thread: 2008 - Going Green in the Office

My contribution to environmental issues for the New Year. You, I and everybody who reads this CAN do something about being more environmentally conscious ......

Going Green in the Office

Everyday, companies spend thousands of Rands/ Dollars on energy costs to run their business. Because of this, many projects get tossed by the wayside because of funding issues. By going green in your office, you can positively affect your company’s bottom line, simply by using less energy!

You might even get a raise with the extra money you’ve saved the company. Okay, don’t
hold your breath on that one, but at the very least, you’ll be preventing unneeded pollution from entering our environment.

1.) Put your monitor to sleep. Whether it shows off your vacation photos or a cool 3D animation, a computer screen saver is not at all designed for energy efficiency. It's intended to save your screen from "burn in," not to save energy. Because monitors are responsible for more than one third of a computer's energy consumption -- even with screen savers -- the best way to conserve energy is to set the monitor to sleep or power off when you're away for an extended period.
2.) Unplug your cell phone charger when not in use. Cell phone chargers use 95% of their energy when they aren’t charging cell phones.
Almost all of the electrical devices in your office use energy, even when they’re turned off. It’s a good idea, and it’s easy to turn off the power strip they’re plugged into just to make sure you’ve reduced the amount of energy being wasted. Putting this into practice every day before you leave the office can save ZAR/N$700-N$2000 per year.
3.) Turn off the lights. Remember to hit the switch on your way out for that well- deserved lunch break. The energy savings from 100 000 employees turning off unneeded lights for 30 minutes a day is enough to illuminate nearly 50 000 square metres of office space.
Flickering fluorescent lights use more energy. If you see one, report it to your maintenance staff.
4.) Print smarter. The average office worker in Europe and the USA goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year. Make it a habit to print on both sides, and use the back side of old documents for faxes, scrap paper, or drafts. A document that is double-spaced and copied on one side uses four times as much paper as one that is single-spaced and duplexed. When purchasing a copier or printer, make sure they can duplex.
5.) Reduce your document margins. Microsoft Word’s default margins are set to 1.25”. (3,2 cm) If all set their default printing to .75” (1.9 cm) some 4.75% less paper would be used, which equates to
tons of office paper and to literally millions saved each year! One state in the US recently made the change, and researchers there found that they saved over 30 hectares of forest each year.
6.) Go paperless when possible. Make it a habit to think before you print: could this be read or
stored online instead?
7.) Refill ink cartridges or recycle them if you can’t. In the US last year, over 15,000 tons of ink cartridges were sent to landfills. Each one used 100ml of oil to make. They are made from a polymer that takes over 1,000 years to decompose. Many companies have introduced incentives for returning ink cartridges to be recycled.
8.) Make use of a reusable bottle for water where you can, rather than a single serving bottle. Of all the bottles of water sold last year, less than 12% were recycled. Plastic is also made from oil, a finite material that will eventually be used up completely.
9.) Wear appropriate clothing to expand your comfort zone and reduce energy for heating and air conditioning. If it is always cold at your office, leave a pullover or jersey at the office that you can put on when you get chilly, rather than operating a heater.
10.) Carpool, bike, walk, or take a bus to work. Fuel prices will only continue to rise, and the amount of pollution put out by cars for work commutes each year is staggering.
11.) Encourage the purchase of Energy Star rated office equipment. Energy Star rated units save 10- 50% off the energy consumption of standard models.
12.) Report air leaks from windows and doors to your maintenance staff. Air leaks are attributed to 10-50% of a building's heating and air conditioning costs. This can reduce the overheads of your building significantly.
13.) Close the blinds during the summer. This will reduce the heat load from the sun, and open them in the winter to gain natural heating when it’s needed.
14.) Make the most of natural light. We in Southern Africa are blessed with abundant sunlight days throughout the year, thus consider opening your blinds and turning off your lights. Also, it’s a good idea not to block the windows.
15.) Get off mailing lists. The last thing you need is another catalogue or other offer on your desk. Before tossing out junk mail, call the company's service number and ask that your name be removed from the mailing list. Have online retailers e-mail you instead.
Almost half of all catalogues are never opened, yet millions of trees are destroyed and billions of litres of water are used to produce them every year.
16.) Promote an energy audit. Putting into use the results from energy audits can typically result in a 30% savings in your utility bills. An energy audit helps you to calculate how much energy you use, where it is used, and where you can reduce energy usage and save money. You can carry out an energy audit at home or in the work place and very quickly you will see why you are spending so much on electricity.
17.) Promote a waste audit. A waste audit is a formal, structured process used to quantify the amount and types of waste being generated by an organisation. 60% of the waste produced by a typical office can be recycled. Information from audits will help identify current waste practices and how they can be improved. Find out what you should be recycling in your office.

Adapted from Green Network