Green workplace: Simple tips for a greener office
This week's eco-topic: Green workplace
Stuffing one-side used paper into the manual feed tray worked for reducing my own paper use in the office, but what about convincing others to reduce and reuse too? Oscar Madrigal, who works at New Economics for Women, has had some great successes reducing paper consumption office-wide. Here, he shares his best paper-saving tips:
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Put Xs on one side of used paper and pile the sheets into a noticeable stack to let people know they can be reused for office memos and meeting agendas.
Opt -- and encourage others to opt for -- double sided copies. I've been to workshops and conferences with environmental organizations that don't double side copies of things. Don't get called out -- Hit the double sided option on the copy machine.
Turn old letterhead into scratch pads. Minute Print, the company that printed our stationary, would take our old letterhead and make scratch pads of out of them for us to use around the office for notes.
Donate annual old annual reports and brochures to local arts organizations, or to a school teacher. For many companies and nonprofits, annual reports have great pictures of people. Kids can use them to make a collage; it's a great way to recycle."
Convince people to bring their own cups/mugs/bottles for water/coffee/tea. This helped to reduce the consumption of paper cups we use.
Other fun green workplace tips:
BYO flatware. I bring my own utensils to work for lunch time, so as to limit the amount of plastic forks and knives I use. A couple people caught on with this. A friend of mine was able to convince an employer to just buy a couple of sets of metal utensils for the lunch room.
Take public transit to happy hour and fun activities. At my old job, we took a trip to Pershing Square to go ice skating as an office activity after work one year. I and some other co-workers convinced everyone to take public transit to Pershing Square. For many, it was their first trip on the Red Line.
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Got your own easy-to-implement green tips for the workplace? Share them in the comments.
Photo by Cathy Ma via Flickr
