paperless office

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Green Your Home Office in Three Easy Steps

September 28, 2009 in Home Office by Jennifer | No comments

There are plenty of important steps to a greener home office, here are three of the biggies.

1. PAPER USE:

The Worldwatch Institute notes that about 42% of all trees harvested are used to make paper. Making paper not only uses precious resources like water, energy, and trees, but cutting down those trees can ruin entire wildlife habitats in the process. Instead of virgin paper use recycled paper – which is readily available nowadays. You can also plan for a paper-free, or less paper used office.

2. ENERGY USE:

Computer use is a big drag on your home energy bill, especially when you get a few users per home. Make sure you’re using eco-savvy, energy saving computer tactics. You can also adjust your office lighting using CFLs or CFL alternatives. In some cases you may be able to use LED lighting (if you have a smaller office space. Also, be sure to unplug items like your printer and fax machine when not in use.

3. GREENER OFFICE SUPPLIES:

First off think reusable, refillable, and long-lasting green office supplies. For example refillable pencils, refillable ink cartridges, recycled notebooks and binders, recycled clipboards, and so on. You’ll also want to look for sustainably made office products and only buy what you actually need. For office furniture you can go with used pieces or sustainable pieces. Also see: Fun Green Home Office Supplies.

Cloth Napkin Pros – Green Home Reusable Cloth Napkins

February 19, 2009 in Eco Kitchen, Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | No comments

This week we’re taking a look at cloth napkins. So far we’ve discussed basics of why you need to use cloth napkins, and looked at some places where you can get some for your home.

Now for some pros:

  • Cloth napkins feel better and work better than paper napkins.
  • Cloth napkins are very cost efficient. Even if you buy a super nice set, cloth napkins will still save you money over paper napkins.
  • Cloth napkins are much healthier for the earth than paper napkins or paper towels. Paper napkins not only create waste because they’re made with paper, but they also come in wasteful packaging, take gas to ship, and are extremely hard to recycle.
  • Cloth napkins last forever and serve other purposes. While paper napkins are a use and toss product, cloth napkins can be used to death, then switched over to cleaning rags. I still have good cloth napkins from over five years ago. My now scrappy and unusable napkins are used for dusting and cleaning. Pretty soon they’re going to biodegrade right at my house they’re used so much.
  • Cloth napkins are NOT that much more work. To keep them looking good throw them in a wash when you do a load of cold delicate items. If you don’t care if they lose a little color, toss them in with any load of laundry.
  • Cloth napkins, contrary to popular belief are still better for the environment than paper, even though it takes water and energy to wash them. Cloth napkins are so small – even if you have a big family, cloth napkins will only run you about one load of wash per week. If you wash on cold, hang dry, and use eco-friendly laundry soap, they just don’t add up to the same eco-badness as paper napkins.

Are you still using paper napkins?

Where in the heck can you find cloth napkins?

February 18, 2009 in Eco Kitchen, Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | 3 comments

In the last post I had myself a little rant about how My family (and maybe your family) are killing trees in one fast swoop. I.E the cloth napkin vs. paper napkin rant. In any case, there are loads of cloth napkins on the market. AND they’re at all price ranges. There is no reason ever to use paper.

Where are all the cloth napkins…

  • Thrift stores.
  • Department stores.
  • Trendy eco-stores.
  • Antique sales.
  • Ask for them on your wedding (or other) registry.
  • Make some.

Some options… Read the rest of this entry »

My family (and maybe your family) are killing trees in one fast swoop

February 17, 2009 in Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle, Save Money by Jennifer | 2 comments

The other night I went to a family dinner at my dad’s house. There were maybe 15 people there. We had pizza (good), salad (good), ice cream cake (even better) and LOADS of paper napkins. Oh my.

At my own house, all we use are cloth napkins. We’ve never used paper napkins, and we don’t even use paper towels. I was a little shocked about all the paper napkin use at dinner the other night, and almost considered wiping my hands on my jeans just to cut down on the excess. On a given day, (not a family dinner night) there are still about 5-8 random people at my dad’s. If you do the lowest math that’s about 5 people x’s three meals and snacks a day. That’s possibly:

  • 20 paper napkins a day.
  • 140 paper napkins a week.
  • 7,280 paper napkins a year! For ONE household. Not to mention the family dinners.

Wow right?

How many trees is that affecting? Let’s use a basic bulk pack of Bounty Quilted Napkins, 100-Napkin Packages (Pack of 20) for our calculations. If you buy in bulk, that’s about 12 pounds of paper napkins. In my family, you’d need about 3.5+ bulk packs for the year.

Semi-fuzzy math calculations: Read the rest of this entry »

Sustainable Paper for Your Home Office

February 17, 2009 in Home Office, Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | No comments

I recently read that Americans use about 580 pounds of paper per year. That is a ton of paper and tree waste if you’re using new virgin fiber paper and not recycling.

Easy tips for more sustainable paper use:

Switch to a mostly paperless office – use your computer calender, electronic fax, pay bills online, and don’t print out emails. Cut paper use wherever you can.

If you have to print, make sure you REALLY need to print. For example, as a writer, I can’t proof on my computer, it just doesn’t work as well for me as a print out and a red pen. However, I know this about myself, so I make sure I’m close to an end proof draft before I print out copies. I never say, print out a first draft.

When you do print, use both sides of the paper.

When you do print out something unimportant (say like my proof drafts I mentioned above) use old scrappy paper you’ve got laying around. You’re the only one who is going to see it.

Recycle all your paper after it’s been used.

Buy the best eco-friendly paper. You want to look for 100% post consumer waste paper, chlorine-free paper, acid-free paper, and paper with smart eco-packaging (soy inks, paper not plastic, and so on).  You can snag some earth-friendly paper from the following companies:

NOTE: Even places like Office Depot and other mainstream office stores carry recycled content paper nowadays, so if you don’t want to shop online, you still can find eco-paper.

Learn more!

How are you greening your home office? Do you recycle all your paper?