10 Steps to a Greener Office
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Each month Natural Awakenings West Michigan and NaturalWestMichigan.com offer helpful tips to green up our acts in Natural Awakenings' popular monthly green living department "Cool Planet."
10 Steps to a Greener Office
Co-op America supplies great ideas for helping Natural Awakenings fans "walk the walk" of energy-efficient environmentally sustainable living. The group’s www.GreenPages.org can hook us up with reliable online resources. Here are their latest tips for making offices look, feel and work well.
- Ask a local utility for a free energy audit. Then join a renewable energy program like www.NativeEnergy.com to offset estimated emissions.
- Replace light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- Turn off PCs and other office equipment at night and install power management software to shift to low-power mode during periods of inactivity.
- Switch to 100 percent recycled paper to cut paper waste down from the average 12,000 sheets per employee per year.
- Invest in reusable plates, cups and utensils recycled from yard sales or from home.
- Recycle paper, aluminum, glass, plastic and cardboard.
- Introduce Fair Trade Certified and organic coffees and teas in the lunchroom.
- Start an onsite or offsite compost program for kitchen waste.
- Encourage green transportation to and from work. Walk, bike and car pool.
- Buy "green" gifts for employee celebrations and client occasions.
