How green can businesses go? Ideas...

Earth Day is nice but it should be reflected in changes we make year around. Now, give some thought to how YOU can make your business and lifestyle more green.

We all adopted computers to cut paper waste only to find that the paper mess actually increased for many of us. When it happened to me, I asked WHY? This is what I discovered.

Having things on computer, or on disks, or other media just isn't as convenient as having a touch and read quickly piece of paper when it's properly filed. I also found the waiting for loading, searching, and then trying to speed read (as I do naturally) and keeping the scrolling moving fast enough to stay ahead of me, just too frustrating. So much for paper messes? No.

The secret was to divide and conquer...some things seldom referenced are fine on disk but some things actually function for me better if in printed format.

Other ways to go green? Recycle...which we'd do more if we had the facilities and room to do more. Even so, many consumables can be recycled such as paper clips, pens (buy extra cartridges whenever a new pen is purchased), even computers can be turned into routers that function as firewalls or recycled in many other ways.

Use energy efficient appliances but forget using the mercury laden small fluroescent bulbs in place of incadescent ones. Mercury is a hazardous waste and pollution with it can cause horrendous consequences to humans and other animals, not to mention the environment.

Buy office chairs that have replaceable parts that frequently wear out (like cylinders for raising and lowering seats) and then take a few minutes to replace worn parts, rather than discard, the chair. Other office furnishings: if they're used daily consider investing in quality as it will pay for itself in the end. This is especially true of filing cabinets...pay for the best suspension system you can afford and it will pay for itself.

Network things like printers to eliminate duplicate purchases and space/support to cut down on waste.

Have a master turn off switch/unit for things that have a short/no warm up time in the morning. Most things left plugged in, even if turned off, use power so...switch them off and save!

Unclutter floors to make clean up quicker and cut down on power consumption. This also increases safety as there are fewer things to trip on.

Lots of ideas...and this is just a mere beginning. Now, how about sharing any ideas you've come up with to make your business etc more green?

Sandi Bowman