SBCBA Eco-Tips

Check out these tips for ways you can make your office more earth-friendly!

Education

  1. Foster employee awareness of your environmental initiatives by developing an environment section of your employee handbook and providing training on your environmental initiatives as part of your firm’s employee orientation.

     2. Send out monthly eco-tips to encourage participation in your firm or company’s environmental initiatives and provide incentives to recognize exceptional performance and creativity from employees.

     3. Set up and label a Conservation Center in a high-traffic area of your office to educate staff about environmentally friendly practices. The center can be a bulletin board, bookshelf or poster and can include one or more of the following:

• A copy of the SBCBA Eco-Tips;
• A list of tips for the office and home;
• A ride-share or carpool chart; and 
• Books and pamphlets about conservation and preservation.

Energy Conservation

     1. Make sustainability a true part of your business practices by adopting change from the inside out.

• Work with individual employees to determine how each can become more environmentally friendly in their current roles;
• Set-up internal goals for employees or departments, as well as rewards for meeting those goals. Issue regular reports on the progress of those goals; and
• Use the office’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint to create a positive image for your business in mission statements, marketing and advertising campaigns.

   1.2 Reduce the amount of electricity consumed by computers in your office. For example, computers left on after hours result in 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

• Set computers on timers that shut them down after 30 minutes of being idle.
• Make sure all computers have and use screen savers.
• Instruct everyone in the office to shut down all parts of their computer – including the monitor – when they leave for the day.

     2. Reduce the amount of electricity used in your office by cutting down on light usage.

• Turn off lights in all rooms when not in use.
• Install motion detectors in areas such as hallways, conference rooms, bathrooms and kitchens.
• Replace older light bulbs with compact fluorescent light or light emitting diode bulbs.

   3. Stop using a screen saver.

• Screen savers do not save energy, they save the screen from being permanently imprinted with an image.
• Screen savers eat up lighting and processing energy.
• Set screen savers to none or blank screen.

     4. Consider laptops: Consider buying laptops instead of desktops, as they generally use less energy and are more efficiently made.

     5. Consider office sharing: If you have a number of employees that don’t use the office regularly, consider assigning offices based on a schedule. You’ll save on utilities, equipment, furniture and more.

     6. Keep air vents clear of paper, files and office supplies. It takes as much as 25 percent more energy to pump air into the workspace if the vents are blocked.

Environmentally Conscious Purchases

     1. Save trees and reduce your carbon footprint by switching to 100% post-consumer recycled content paper for photo-copying and professional print jobs. The myth that recycled content paper is of worse quality or will get stuck in copiers and printers is just that – recycled content paper performs just as well and comes with the added benefit of being able to promote your “green” choice to customers and clients.

     2. To cut down on trash and packaging, buy your kitchen supplies – like sugar, creamer, and coffee – in bulk rather than in single-serving containers.

     3. Consider energy-efficient equipment when replacing appliances and computers in your office and home.

• Visit Energy Star at http://www.energystar.gov/to find a wide array of energy saving products, including printers, copies, refrigerators and computers.
• When replacing computers consider those that are rated highly by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) by visiting http://www.epeat.net/. The website uses a set of criteria to help consumers compare the energy efficiency of various computers.

     4. Think about the impact of all the products you buy for the office, even those seemingly as innocent as hand soap. When purchasing dishwashing liquid, hand soap and automatic dishwashing detergent for use in office kitchens and bathrooms, choose those free of toxic substances including phosphates, triclosan, chlorine and/or other antibacterial ingredients.

     5. To help your office implement the many tips we've offered over the past several weeks, view a comprehensive list of Green Resources. The resources list where you can purchase green office products, includes:

• The Green Office – www.thegreenoffice.com/
• The Sustainable Group – www.sustainablegroup.net/
• Energy Star – http://www.energystar.gov/
• Atlas Water – http://www.atlaswatersystems.com/

     6. When considering what paper to purchase and use at the office, consider more than just if the paper is recycled.

• Choose paper that is processed chlorine free.
• Use unbleached and uncolored paper.

     7. When replacing office supplies that are broken or otherwise useless, consider choosing environmentally friendly options.

• Staple free stapler;
• Bulletin board made of recycled materials; and
• Dry erase calendar.

Sustainable Practices

     1. Recycle your old computers or donate them to a local non-profit organization. Most major computer manufacturers offer recycling programs that make it easy to recycle or donate your old computers.

     2. Buy reusable coffee mugs for your employees or yourself and use them when you get your caffeine fix for refills in your office or the local coffee shop.

     3. Reduce the use of toxic products in the workplace.

• Purchase unbleached paper towels and napkins for bathrooms and the kitchen/cafeteria.
• Buy cleaners for bathrooms and the kitchen/cafeteria with low toxicity and high biodegradability or clean with natural products such as baking soda, lemon juice, white vinegar and club soda.

     4. Cut down on waste and disposables in your office and work toward recycling items you are no longer using:

• Arrange for your ink cartridge supplier to pick up used cartridges for reuse and/or purchase remanufactured cartridges, rather than new ones, for laser printers.
• Provide pitchers with filtered water rather than bottled water, to employees and visitors.
• Donate old office equipment, computers and supplies. 

     5. Conserve water use in the office.

• Install low-flow toilets and aerators in all sink faucets.
• Post signs asking users to use as little water as possible.
• Establish regular maintenance of sinks, toilets and other areas that use water to catch and repair leaks.

6. Save ink by altering your printing habits:

• Avoid printing in color when you can and opt for black and white only; and
• Use draft mode to print items in a lighter shade using less ink.