E-mail and scanners have all but made the fax machine a thing of the past, but most offices can’t quite give them up yet.The good news is there are now Online Faxes that allow you all the convenience of a fax machine, but use less paper, and offer other benefits:
Lower Cost
More Efficient Use of Time
More Reliable
Environmentally Responsible
Security
How it works:
Sending: When sending faxes, you log in to the fax website and upload the document.If the document is already a file on your hard drive, you simply upload it like an e-mail attachment.If you only have a hard copy, you’ll need to scan it, save it, then upload it.On the receiving end, the recipient will get a paper hard copy, just like you had sent it via traditional fax (unless they too have an online fax).
Receiving: When receiving incoming faxes, rather than a paper print out, you get an e-mail with an attachment.If you need to print it you can, otherwise you can just save it to the appropriate folder on your hard drive.
All those unwanted faxes, just hit delete – no need to save them to your desktop, waste paper.Need another reason?Most spam fax comes through whether you want it to or not, that means it gets printed, and you have to pay for the paper.
Aveda now has a cap program that will recycle bottle caps, a material that has been in the past un-recycleable. They will accept all screw caps that are hard plastic, usually the #5 in the recycle arrows located on the inside of the cap. This includes twist tops on bottles, flip tops from tube or food products and other screw like-type rigid lids. Please don’t send them any flexible or soft lids on tubs. For more details on the type of caps and where to send them, contact Aveda directly at capcollection@aveda.com.
One more material that we can keep out of the landfill!
The Fresh Ideas Group, a communications company based in Boulder, just launched their 2010 Consumer Trends Forecast. They are calling it the new SHEconomy focusing on the impact of women in the green marketplace. Interesting thoughts on green trends for 2010.
It’s true for all of us. We all want to be more green but each step requires us to do something differently which is not always easy. If we each committed to just one new thing for the year, we would make a powerful difference as a collective in our nation.
We will have more success with our commitments if we are as specific as we can be to the action and behavior we would like to change. Instead of committing to just purchasing less, make a firm dollar commitment. Based on what you usually spend on ‘luxury’ or ‘disposable’ items, make a dollar commitment to spend only $200 for the year, or whatever amount makes sense for you and your family. Then, determine how you are going to track your commitment and have some way to measure it. With the example of purchasing less, you would know by the amount of money you spend.
This year, I have committed to driving less and my goal is to reduce my usual 12,000 miles per year down to 9,000 miles for the year. Although that doesn’t seem to be a lot, that is essentially not driving my car 3 months out of the entire year! My plan is to use a combination of alternative transportation methods such as my bike, the bus and try to carpool more often. How will I know if I am successful? Well, I will track my miles monthly and the goal is to reduce each month by 250 miles. I’ll keep you posted on my progress during the year.
Again, make your new resolution a specific action and determine the way you will track it. When you do this, the likelihood of success will go up dramatically.
Share with me what your green commitment will be for the year.
As the holiday season approaches you may want to add some decorations around the office, as well as at home. One easy way to spread the holiday cheer while saving energy, and some company money, is to switch to LED (light emitting diode) holiday lights. LED lights are an alternative to conventional incandescent holiday lights and are gaining popularity and availability. Though still more expensive than conventional lights, LEDs offer a number of benefits that not only outweigh the cost, but actually may make them cheaper in the long run. Some stores are offering a take back program, where they will take your old holiday lights, recycle them, and give you a discount on new LED lights.
Benefits of LED lights:
90% more energy efficient – saving you money on the utility bill
When one bulb goes out, the others stay lit
Unlike incandescentbulbs, LEDs are cool to the touch
LEDs are more durable and less likely to break
Pricewise, LEDs cost about five times as much as incandescentsupfront. But their life span is 50,000 hours, instead of 1,000-2,000 hours for incandescents. That means if you lit the LEDs for 45 days each year, 24 hours a day, it would take 46 years for them to dim.
Today, business leaders have a chance to get their voice heard on climate change. The University of Cambridge is compiling a list of world business leaders that will sign a statement that will lead to aggressive changes on climate change globally. Business leaders from the Corporate Leaders’ Group will be handing a copy of The Copenhagen Communiqué to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown on December 10, 2009 which will be passed onto the leaders at the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.
For more information on climate change visit these websites:
In order for sustainability plan and initiatives to take hold, it is important to get staff within your organization to be engaged and involved. There is no better way then to form then green teams inside your organization. Green teams is a small group strategically chosen that can build momentum and excitement about sustainability and be crucial to the culture shift within an organization.
To learn more about forming a green read my recent article in Colorado Biz magazine. Another good article about green team formation was written last year by GreenBiz.com called Corporate Green Teams. The EPA also has a short guide on creating green teams.
Eco-officiency was a sponsor of this years 2009 Colorado Environmental Film Festival which featured the movie Tapped, about the 1.1 billion dollar bottle water industry. This movie has been recognized and awarded in over 15 different film festivals. It was a fantastic look at the bottle water industry and how it is affecting so many areas of life of communities, health, water safety and waste issues. A must see if you didn’t get to the film festival!
Visit the Tapped website to order the DVD.
Inform IT has launched a 4 part series articles by myself, K.J. McCorry, to be released in the coming month on becoming the paperless office. This is preparation for my upcoming book, Becoming the Paperless Office.
I will also be teaching an online webinar about paperless office through Ragan Management Resources on Wednesday, October 28th. click here to purchase the CD of the recording.
A free movie to view on You Tube , Home, takes you around the world with some stunning cinematography.Home was intended to mobilize the world to take more action on environmental initiatives. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Paperless Office, Recommended Resources | officiency January 22, 2010 | 
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