How to Make Your Home Office Greener
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August 2, 2011Public Interest Journalism And ‘New News’
August 2, 2011Laura Farrant tries to incorporate her green living principles in every area of her life and has applied the following ideas in her own office, where she works on logo design. As a PWF guest writer, Laura shares her tips on how to make your office more eco-friendly.
Employees who work from home and small business owners who maintain a home office are already well on their way to conserving energy because they no longer have to commute to another location. However, unless they are careful, a home office can become just as environmentally unfriendly as a traditional office. Time and familiarity often lead to practices that are not conducive to conservation, but through a conscientious effort on the part of those of us who use a home office, an eco-friendly environment can be established.
Greener Home Office Furnishings
When setting up a home office or replacing furniture and equipment, it is possible to make choices that will help preserve natural resources. Some of the better choices include the following:
• Use bamboo products whenever possible. This highly renewable material is used to make flooring, external computer hard drives, cooling stations, and laptops.
• Consider using the sun’s power to recharge cell phones, provide lighting, or power equipment.
• Recycle ink cartridges, old computers, and other electronics by donating to charity or taking them to a local electronics store. This can really reduce the amount of trash dumped into already overflowing landfills.
• Choose an ink jet printer for office materials because these use less energy than the laser variety. If a laser printer is absolutely necessary, buy one with the Energy Star or Blue Angel Certification Seal.
Habits That Will Cut Paper Waste
• Make use of electronic catalogs, newspapers, phone books, and accounting procedures in order to conserve trees.
• Keep a recycling bin beside the desk and copy machine.
• Cut up envelopes or other paper with space to write on that would otherwise be destined for recycling, and reuse as scrap paper for notes and phone messages.
• After filing those important for yearly tax filing, shred old receipts and papers that contain private information to use for packing materials, or add to your garden compost bin.
• Buy unbleached, recycled paper that has been manufactured locally to save the economic impact of exporting the raw materials to make it and then importing the paper materials back into the country.
• Print on both sides of the paper when feasible.
• Keep important files in digital form on the computer and use a good backup system.
• Reuse packing boxes or manila envelopes whenever possible.
• Buy and ship in large quantities to limit the amount of filler and packaging used.
Save Energy And Resources
Other habits that are important in maintaining an eco-friendly home office environment include:
• Using compact fluorescent bulbs or LED desk lamps for lighting.
• Unplugging all machines at the end of the day
• Using pens and markers that can be refilled with ink.
Even little actions can make a big difference when it comes to saving the environment. If each home office were as green as possible, this would have a measurable impact on sustaining the natural resources on which the world depends for survival.
Thanks Laura – some great ideas here
1 Comment
This is all very basic, and I also question encouraging the use of bamboo, which is not a native plant and in some areas is actually considered a noxious weed. You’d need to check out the credentials of the bamboo source. FSC approved materials is a better bet.
You don’t need to unplug all your equipment, you just need a powerboard with individual switches that you can turn on/off when needed and turn off at the wall when you’re done for the day. This is a tip we’ve somehow acquired from the USA because they don’t have switches for their electrical sockets.
I’d add to this a few things that you may not be able to do in a conventional office:
* Furnishings: Buy/use secondhand. Saves money, saves resources.
* Energy: Switch to renewable power where possible.
* Energy: Open a window when it’s hot and close it when it’s cold (or use a fan/heater) rather than air conditioning.
* Energy: Consider using a laptop computer (on a stand, with keyboard/mouse attachments). Laptops use less energy than desktops because the power source is for one unit rather than motherboard + screen.