Greening Your Business

Tips on how to start making your business operations easier on the planet -- and on your bottom line.

When you start to green your business operations, you're helping to reduce global warming pollution, preserve forests and biodiversity, and keep our air and water clean. And you can also help protect your bottom line because environmentally.
responsible businesses are efficient businesses. This guide provides a few simple tips on how your business can start to go green.

Use Better Paper, and Less of It

The average office tosses out about 350 pounds of paper per employee, per year. Reducing your waste and purchasing paper with postconsumer recycled content can help save trees and nudge the pulp and paper industry, one of the most environmentally
destructive industries in the world, toward a less damaging path.

Set your printers to print double-sided, or designate a draft tray and fill it with paper that's blank on one side.
Buy copier paper with a minimum 30 percent postconsumer recycled content. (100 percent is best!)

Collect used paper separately for recycling, and coordinate with your building manager and waste hauler to set up a recycling system that works for everyone. If you can, also recycle other materials, like aluminum, glass and plastic.

Stock bathrooms with postconsumer recycled tissue products. Tissue manufacturers destroy forests when they turn virgin wood into throw-away paper products. See our guide for ecologically preferable brands.

Get Energy Efficient

Using less energy reduces the demand on power plants, the nation's leading contributors to global warming pollution and mercury pollution. And it saves a bundle on your energy bills.

Contact your utility company to arrange for a free (or inexpensive) energy audit. An engineer will examine your operations and provide you with a detailed report about how your firm can save on energy costs, from rebates to improved maintenance.
Turn off lights and unplug electronics after hours -- computers and other electronics use energy while they're plugged in, even when they're switched off. (Plug all your appliances into a power strip and you'll only have to flip one switch at the end of the day.)

Set computers to sleep and hibernate when inactive, and lose the screen savers. Flying toasters and slideshows can use up about $50 of electricity in a year. Look for power management or energy saving features on the control panel for Windows, or system preferences under the apple menu for Macs.
Use Energy Star office equipment -- most major brands carry energy-saving models marked with the Energy Star label.

Cut Water Waste

One billion people on our planet can't get safe drinking water. In the United States, some rivers are being drawn down faster than nature can fill them up. Using water efficiently today will help ensure that future generations have access to the water they need.

Install faucet aerators and low-flow toilets
Check for and fix leaks
Recycle water
Landscape for maximum water efficiency

Create a Greener Working Environment

Employees are on the front lines of any sustainability initiatives your company chooses to make. Participation from all levels of your staff is a crucial part of any greening effort.

Buy less toxic cleaners to improve indoor air quality and reduce risks to employee health.

Create a green team with members from all divisions of your organization to help implement plans and bring new ideas to the table.



For more information contact the NDRC.

Operating a green business is not only good for the environment but good for your business's bottom line because conserving resources and cutting down on waste saves money. The good news is that whether you run a home-based business or an off-site enterprise, there are simple things you can do to run an environmentally friendly business.

Recycling is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of being environmentally friendly. And recycling is important. But recycling is only one part of the environmentally friendly business equation. We can also take a large step towards being more environmentally friendly by reducing the amounts of waste in our offices and business operations.

Here are just ten easy-to-implement ideas for running a green business from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's Greening Operations guides that you can put into practice right now to make your office a more environmentally friendly place:

1. Turn off equipment when it's not being used. This can reduce the energy used by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent.

2. Encourage communications by email, and read email messages onscreen to determine whether it's necessary to print them. If it's not, don't!

3. Reduce fax-related paper waste by using a fax-modem and by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary.Fax-modems allow documents to be sent directly from a computer, without requiring a printed hard copy.

4. Produce double-sided documents whenever possible.

5. Do not leave taps dripping; always close them tightly after use. (One drop wasted per second wastes 10,000 litres per year.)

6. Install displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones [not bricks] in the toilet's reservoir will displace about 4 litres of water per flush - a huge reduction of water use over the course of a year.

7. Find a supply of paper with maximum available recycled content.

8. Choose suppliers who take back packaging for reuse.

9. Instigate an ongoing search for "greener" products and services in the local community. The further your supplies or service providers have to travel, the more energy will be used to get them to you.

10. Before deciding whether you need to purchase new office furniture, see if your existing office furniture can be refurbished. It's less expensive than buying new and better for the environment.

You can find out more about running an environmentally friendly business in my article, Being Good to the Environment is Good for Business.

Environmentally friendly actions don't have to be large to have an impact. Consistently reducing the amount of energy, water, and paper our businesses use can make a huge difference, both to the environment and to our pocketbooks. How much paper would you save over the course of a year, for instance, if you always ran doublesided copies? A small thing - but a big result!

By Paul Eccleston
Last Updated: 2:01pm BST 01/06/2007
From the Telegraph

Going green can also be glamorous.

Denise Van Outen, TV presenter and West End actress, has been modelling exotic gowns made from recycled materials.

The couture dresses were created by ethical fashion designer Gary Harvey to launch Recycle Now Week, a government-funded campaign aimed at encouraging more recycling, which runs from June 2 -June 8.

The fashion collection includes a 'technicolor dream dress', made from recycled cans, bottle tops, cardboard packaging, glass beads and plastic bags; a 'tulle' skirt, made from 30 newspapers; and a tiered ball gown, made from 42 pairs of used Levi 501s.

New consumer research for Recycle Now Week reveals that over half of us feel guilty for not doing more to protect the environment.

The nation's top causes of 'green guilt' are throwing food away (41 per cent), using plastic bags at the supermarket (33 per cent), throwing packaging away, instead of recycling (28 per cent), leaving the TV on stand-by (27 per cent), and travelling short distances in the car, instead of walking or cycling (23 per cent).

Denise said: "These days, I think most of us have a much stronger awareness of how our behaviour impacts on the environment.

"I've been a keen recycler for several years, and it's great to see that it's no longer a minority activity.

"In fact, with everyone from George Clooney and Cameron Diaz to Lily Cole championing environmental issues, going green has never been more fashionable."

Now in its fourth year, Recycle Now Week will see events across the country, from recycling exhibitions to environmental magicians, composting displays to eco-fashion shows. Local authorities, community groups, supermarkets and businesses are getting involved.

Whether you dread it or don't mind living out of your suitcase on occasion, business travel is a fact of life for many. Steps to make your travel a bit more eco-sensible-from transportation to lodging to getting down to the business nitty gritty-are available for career-minded jetsetters minding their carbon footprints.

10 things you can do to Green Your Business travel:

1. Use teleconferencing services.
Meet green by choosing remote collaboration methods via phone, video, and online.

2. Travel by train or bus.
Avoid the long security lines at the airport and book a ticket on a train or intercity bus. Your trip will leave a lower carbon footprint and you might even enjoy the slower pace.

3. Fly airlines with eco-friendly policies.
From recycling to carbon offsets some airlines are promoting policies that mitigate air travel's environmental impacts. Find out if your frequent flyer miles are flying green!

4. Choose a green hotel.
Leverage your green business muscle when choosing corporate hotel partners. Gauge their eco-commitment and make it known that green matters to you and your employees.

5. Offset your office energy and travel emissions.
Even the most energy-efficient business can't run emissions-free. For those inevitable emissions (from, say, winging it to Los Angeles or powering your office), there are carbon offsets to help you and your company get down to zero.

6. Drive a green rental car.
Think green and fuel-efficient the next time you're at the rental counter.

7. Take public transportation.
Opting for public transit instead of short-distance solo business driving means more passengers per vehicle and a smaller eco-travelprint.

8. Walk or ride your bike.
Next time you meet clients for lunch or attend an off-site meeting, choose to self-propel. You'll enjoy the exercise, without gym fees, and reduce carbon emissions, too.

9. Hire a green limo or car service.
Whether you're going to the airport to catch a flight or shuttling to and from your hotel, hire an eco-friendly car service to get you there in green style.

10. Save energy at home while you travel.
If you're leaving behind an empty home, remember to unplug!

For more on this, Green Your Business Travel.