There are a host of calculators out there to help you or your office determine your impact. Once your impact is known then create a goal of how you would like to reduce it. Here are a few of my favorites to get you started:
More and more companies are implementing flexible schedules, allowing employees to work 4/10s (four ten hour days), 9/80s (9 hours days with one day off every two weeks), or to work from home. These flex schedules don’t just boost employee morale, they are also good for the environment. By driving two days less day per week, the average person can save about 143 gallons of gasoline and keep about 2,778 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere in a year. If only 1 percent of all licensed drivers followed suit, 273 million gallons of gasoline and 5.3 billion pounds of CO2 could be saved this year.
If you aren’t sure how to implement a telework program or are concerned about productivity, consider using e-work. e-work provides online training and consulting geared to telework and virtual work programs.
More than 31 million of the country’s 104 million office computers are left on overnight. According to the campaign survey“across the nation, this adds up to more than $1.72 billion dollars and almost 15 million tons of CO2 emissions.”
It is a cost per employee of about $150 per year to power a computer overnight…essentially that is not being used.Implement an office campaign to turn computers off at night.Having trouble remembering?Set Outlook to send you a reminder every day 15 minutes before you typically leave.
Or entice your IT department to purchase an IT system that will do it for you such as Verdiem Software. This software allows for power management settings to be controlled by a central server system. Essentially it can turn off all computers in an organization at the same time.
A study by Xerox showed that 45% of the office paper that is discarded was on the day it was printed – which begs the question, how necessary was it to print the document in the first place?
Nexttime you go to a meeting, consider whether everyone really needs a full copy of all the documents.If it is just an aid to be used during the meeting and then discarded, don’t print it.Not only does this waste paper, but often people will end up reading, or skimming, the document rather than listen to you talk.However, your audience still needs to be informed, so here are some alternatives to printing a copy for each person.
Print one or two master copies that can be passed around.
Develop a 1 page executive summary that highlights the main points
E-mail the information out beforehand so people can be familiar with the information
Use an overhead projector or white board to write up the main points or topics
Although McDonald’s is not known for its healthiest menu, it has done a terrific job of incorporating sustainable business practices into its organization.McDonald’s has a specific webpage designed to share their best green practices for other companies and organizations to learn from. Bob Langert, the Chief Corporate Sustainability Officer for McDonalds, also has a terrific blog. He travels around the world working to support sustainable food supply.
Calculators | eco-officiency June 28, 2010 | 
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