Whether your office is a spare bedroom in your home or the workspace for a number of people in an office building, there are all kinds of ways you can ‘go green’ in your office. Plus, as an added bonus, going green doesn’t mean you will need to spend more, if fact, you could be saving money while you’re helping the environment. Here are some simple ideas on how you can go ‘green’ in your office.

There’s no such thing a paperless office.

The average American office worker goes though about 150 pounds of paper every year. Reducing the amount of paper you use is a great way to start, you’ll reduce the amount of paper you need to buy and help the environment at the same time.

• Buy paper that contains high post-consumer recycled content. It’s available at all major office supply stores and outlets as well as department stores.
• Proofread initial draft documents on your computer screen rather than printing them out.
• Set your printers to print double sided, or if that requires manual intervention, use the clear side for printing interim documents or use it for scratch paper.
• Store your documents digitally whenever possible. Accessing a digital document on a computer is faster than looking through a paper filing cabinet, and digital storage is totally reusable.

Recycle what you can.

• Even paper that has been printed on both sides can still be recycled, as can glass bottles, metal drink cans, plastics, and cardboard. Recycling is easier if you have separate containers for your trash and your recyclables.
• It’s not just paper, glass, and metal that can be recycled. Consider recycling old computers, office equipment such as printers or copiers, and even cell phones. You can often donate older office equipment to local charities; there are a number of organizations who will take old (but still working) computers and refurbish them for schools or donate them to students in other countries. You can often get a tax deduction for donating equipment to charity.
• It’s estimated that over 400 million ink cartridges are thrown into landfills every year, creating almost 2 billion pounds of waste. Many companies will provide instructions, packaging materials, and free postage if you wish to recycle your old cartridge, which is then refilled and used again. You can buy remanufactured ink and toner cartridges (they’re less expensive than new) then recycle them when they’re empty. Recycled cartridges are available at most major office supply stores as well as online.

Cut down your power usage and save money.

• CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs) use at least 60% less electricity than regular incandescent bulbs and last more than 5 times longer.
• Plug your electronics into power strips so you can turn them totally off rather than have them ‘idling’ and using electricity. Some estimates suggest more than 50% of the electricity consumed by office electronics (phantom load) happens when they are “off’”.

To locate user’s manuals for your office printer, surge protector, cordless phone, or any office equipment, visit the ManualsOnline Library.