Green Your Home Office – Home Office Eco Ideas

January 15, 2009 in Green Your Home, Healthy Green Home by Jennifer | 2 comments

This week we’re looking at how to create a healthy and green home office. The other day we saw some office supplies and products that can help you reduce waste and chemicals.Today some tips that can help you easily green your home office space.

Shredding rules: If you splurge on one amazing piece of equipment, make sure it’s a shredder. You need a heavy duty paper shredder. This will help you keep things tidy and supply you plenty of free and recycled packing material. If you have too much shredding, you can compost the extra, or simply toss it in the recycle bin. It doesn’t pay to buy a wussy shredder though. Get a really nice one, like the OfficeMax Shredder, Cross-Cut. This shredder has a 20 sheet capacity (even with staples) and shreds crazy stuff like credit cards and DVDs.

Try green flooring: Some nice eco-friendly rugs, that still allow your chair on wheels to roll around include:

NOTE: for real rolling ease, you should use a rug mat under the rug you choose.

Bring in some real green: Plants are both healthy and green. Placing two or three around your desk is an easy way to improve the air quality in your office. Opening that window from time to time (even in winter) will help to improve your air quality and green your space as well.

Stay warm, save energy: If you can, set up a home office thermostat that’s programmable. If you’re in and out of your home office quite a bit, you might want to consider a sweater vs. the heat cranking.

If something breaks… You should take more steps than just tossing the item. One, see if your item can be fixed. Two, if it can’t be fixed, see if you can recycle it. Three, if it’s not broke, I’d say hang onto it. However, we all know there are folks who like the latest office gadgets. If this is you, don’t toss your old one, donate it to a cause. Plenty of non-profits can use an extra computer or printer.

Stay tuned for tips on green home office accessories.

How are you greening your home office?

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  1. New York Carpet Cleaning’s avatar

    New York Carpet Cleaning on April 23, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    Great article on sprucing up the office. I especially like the idea of adding the plants to the office. We did this last summer and it’s true what you say. It does improve the indoor air quality of the office and looks much prettier.

  2. Toronto Carpet Cleaning’s avatar

    Toronto Carpet Cleaning on August 7, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    This is a great article on how you can incorporate healthy green tips at your home office. Having a shredder is absolutely a must and we are slowly trying to create a greener environment by having indoor plants, regular recycling schedules etc.