eco-officiency blog » eco-officiency

Calculate Your Impact and Footprint

eco-officiency — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:00:25 +0000

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:

Global Footprint Network: A good overall calculator on general green footprint

Household Savings Calculator: Developed by the NRDC to track home energy savings

Water Calculator: Developed by H2O Conserve this measures water consumption.

Xerox Sustainability Calculator: A great calculator that measures the overall impact a company’s printers and copiers have on the environment.

Save Money and CO2: Employ Flexible Schedules – Work from Home Programs

eco-officiency — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:00:59 +0000

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.

Save Money – Turn Computers off at Night

eco-officiency — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:00:35 +0000

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.

Meeting Prep – Don’t Print that Document

eco-officiency — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:00:55 +0000

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?

Next time 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
Download to a e-reader such as a Kindle or iPad

McDonald’s Best Practises

eco-officiency — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:00:29 +0000

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.

BP Oil Spill- How you can help?

eco-officiency — Sat, 15 May 2010 05:00:13 +0000

If you are wondering how you can help with the BP Oil Spill, you can give some hair or pantyhose! That’s right human hair inside of pantyhose soaks up oil. Matter of Trust is helping to organize the hair boom products. Log on for more information and where you can send items.

Give Your Stuff Away Day- Saturday, May 15th

eco-officiency — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:09:14 +0000

This years begins a new day to help get rid of clutter and reduce waste called ‘Give Your Stuff Away Day”. A citizen based movement started by Mike Monroe that will initiate its first year of formation in 2010.

Give Your Stuff Away Day will happen on Saturday, May 15, 2010. Citizens across the U.S. will bring items of value that are longer needed or wanted to the curb for a free give-away. Mike has asked citizens not to put out trash, recyclables, illegal or dangerous items, food, drugs, chemicals, or weapons; which seems fairly obvious. Hopefully, at the same time, millions of other Americans will be driving, riding, or walking around picking up free give away items.

Not sure of its success or if people will really do it but might be a great opportunity to purge your garage, office and create re-use for items no longer wanted.

For more information visit Mike’s website at GiveYourStuffAway.com

Consider CarShare Programs to Enchance Alternative Transportation Options

eco-officiency — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:00:13 +0000

Many offices are encouraging their employees to carpool or take public transportation to work. Public transportation or carpooling may work well to get to the office, but can be a hindrance when trying to get to outside meetings during the day. Consider joining a carshare that will alleviate the need to have a company car but support alternative transportation programs within your company. Most carshare programs have online or phone reservation systems. Cars are usually parked in convenient areas around urban areas.

Here are some recommended carshare programs;

eGo CarShare is a carshare service located in the greater Boulder/Denver area.
ZipCar is a national carshare program. They have locations in most major U.S. Cities and around University campuses.
CarSharing.net is a directory of other local carsharing companies across the U.S.

ShareGreen: Green Business Best Practises

eco-officiency — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 06:00:54 +0000

Walmart Canada recently launched a website, ShareGreen, that offers case studies on green business best practices within Canada.

Case studies have already been posted from companies such as Nestle Water, Stonyfield Farms, Tetra Pak, SC Johnson and Kimblerly-Clark. All companies are encouraged to share their stories and case studies on how they have improved energy, waste, green products and solution, and employee engagement.

Case studies are organized by industry sector such as food and beverage, manufacturing, professional services, resource extraction and retail industries, with plans to add further industries for the government, tourism and transportation sectors.

Take a look and see what other companies are doing to be more green and eco-conscious in their business.

No Impact Man: Recommended Documentary

eco-officiency — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:00:22 +0000

No Impact Man is a story about Colin Beavan who decides for one year to eliminate his personal impact and change he and his family’s lifestyle to be more green. They makes some hard sacrifices such as giving up electricity for 6 months, no elevators, toilet paper or cars. The first reaction seems extreme, but through his chronicles you realize that humans have a great capacity for adjustment. His wife, Michelle, initially struggled although she was supportive of the project. At the end you clearly see she is happier, they have improved communications and really became a convert for the lifestyle.

Another great chronicle of how living life sustainably doesn’t have to be hard, it is just different. A big payoff is the money savings but more than that you see a family who enjoys each other and life again.

You can purchase the DVD from Oscillcope Laboratories or Whole Foods. It is also available for rent at local video store.