Posted on March 16th, 2008
For those of us working hard for the money in an office each day, there are lots of ways to
make a difference by lessening our impact on the environment. One super easy way to reduce your use is to save those little “Sign Here” stickers that crop up on documents. When someone sends us something to sign, we sign it, take off the sticky and press it to the base of our computer monitor for easy access when we need something signed later. We’ve been using the same packet of removable flags for years! This tiny example of reduce and reuse might not save the polar bears, but it will help lighten your ...
Posted on March 15th, 2008
The time has come to revive the lunch box! Pack a lunch to bring to work and/or send one with the kids school, and save money and disposable packaging everyday. Be the envy of all your friends (or colleagues!) when you bust out organic chocolate covered almonds, heirloom tomato salads, tasty sustianably-caught tuna, and other green goodness from home.
Get creative as to how we define lunch box- skip the brown paper bags and vinyl plastic lunch boxes, and instead flaunt your eco-chic ethic by using a cotton canvas bag or a retro metal lunch box, reusing glass jars instead of ziploc bags, and wrapping your sandwich in biodegradable parchment paper instead of aluminum foil or plastic wrap. ...
Posted on March 10th, 2008
Create a green bulletin board at work to keep your colleagues in the loop of all things green. Post info on local tree planting events and volunteer opportunities, cell phone recycling, community gardens, farmers’ market days, carbon offsets, charity donation drives for secondhand furniture, clothing, bicycles… The sky’s the limit! Even your city’s waste management poster on what can and can’t go in the recycling bin is a helpful reminder of ways that people can be active environmentalists at work.
Include tips for how to green your office space- here are a few to get you started!
-Ride your bike or take public transit to work, or carpool
-Bring a plant for your desk to improve indoor ...
Posted on March 7th, 2008
These days it's super easy to carpool. Online rideshare tools like the app on
Facebook, as well as
Car Pool Connect,
iCarPool,
CarPool World and
eRideShare make it a cinch to hook up with other do-gooders like you. Carpooling is a great way to meet new people while reducing the amount of miles your car drives each year. By keeping your car parked at home part of the time, you'll save on gas, maintenance and possibly even insurance. Even better, reducing the number of cars on the road helps the environment. Cutting out one 20 minute car trip each week can save 1,200 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year. Imagine ...
Posted on March 6th, 2008
Got the option to work from home? Take advantage. You'll be surprised at how efficient you'll be working from home, with minimal interruptions, prioritizing your time so you can get out and play sooner. By working from your pad, you'll save gas & emissions put out from your commute and gain yourself some time away from traffic. For some of you, that's 2 or 3 hours back. You can even make yourself a fabulous homemade lunch, even saving you a little dough from your normal cafeteria lunch adventures. Bologna sandwich in pajamas, anyone?
Posted on March 5th, 2008
Although many people have great conservation habits at home, like turning off lights when not in use, somehow these practices often seem foreign in our workplaces. Placing gentle reminders next to light switches really makes a difference! Use cartoons, inspirational quotes about conservation, and humour, and you'll find your colleagues switching off lights in no time. Place a different quote next to each light switch, and people will be looking for light switches to turn off just to read a new quote.
Need some quotes to get you started? Here you go!
"If you want to see an endangered species, get up and look in the mirror."
– John Young, former Apollo astronaut
"When we tug ...
Posted on March 2nd, 2008
While it's cool to be single, we're big fans of carpools and not such big fans of single-serving products. An easy way to go green is to put your foot down when it comes to solo-packed snacking. A snack pack of crisps or a granola bar may seem like an easy way to quench a mid-day craving, but the trash produced ends up in the dump. Stick to easy-to-carry fruits (like apples and bananas) or buy almonds, chocolates, and rice crackers in bulk for snacks that carry a double no-guilt serving: one because they're healthy, and another because they're less waste!
Posted on February 26th, 2008
Trying to quit smoking? Good for you! That’s one tough New Year’s resolution… We all know that smoking is bad for your health, but did you know it’s bad for the environment too? Yep. Those sneaky cigarette companies aren’t just throwing in additives that are harmful to you, but are harmful to nature as well. Each time you light up, you’re sending up to 4,000 chemicals into the atmosphere – things like formaldehyde, benzene and hydrogen cyanide, which are all air-polluting, smog- inducing VOC’s. In addition to the toxic smoke, tobacco farming is pretty shady too. Almost 500 different types of pesticides are used to protect U.S. crops from bugs, and ...
Posted on February 23rd, 2008
Did you know that 40% of trash in U.S. landfills consists of paper and that 30% of the timber consumed in the U.S. is used to make paper products? Reduce your impact by reducing how many paper products you consume at work, at home and at play. Should you find yourself unable to part with paper towels, napkins or paper plates (to name a few), try shopping for products made from post-consumer materials (as high of a percentage as you can find), that are unbleached, or whitened without chlorine. Bleaching paper with chlorine creates dangerous toxins such as dioxins, furans and other organochlorines. Once loose in the environment, these chemicals accumulate in both people and animals. ...
Posted on February 5th, 2008
While we know you've cut way back on
printing unnecessarily, chances are you still need to print from time to time. What you might not know is that over 300 million ink cartridges are thrown away every year. Yikes! Help keep all that plastic out of landfills by recycling used cartridges. Recycling helps the environmtn by keeping cartirdges out of the trash and reducing the number of new cartridges that need to be manufactured. Before you decide that it's easier to toss than to recycle, keep in mind that the store where you buy your replacement ink (such as Staples or Office Depot) probably recycles old cartridges for their customers. For busineses, ...
