Tag Archives: Climate Change

Going Paperless Reduces Carbon Footprint

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For most small and medium sized businesses reducing paper consumption can significantly reduce an organizations carbon footprint. If the US cut office paper use by just 10 percent it would eliminate 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases which is the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road for one year. According to reduce.org, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year. Further paper statistics conclude that it takes an entire tree to generate 12,500 pieces paper, of which only 5% will ever be recycled.

As companies of all sizes realize the constraints that paper places on their businesses, they are exploring the many advantages offered by a paperless office, as identified in the article, Becoming a Paperless Office.

Even though the principles of a paperless company are beneficial, it can be challenging to leave behind a data format on which your business has always relied. Here are just a few easy tips that can start your business to reduce and recycle paper;

  • Use both sides of the paper. You can set your printer default to print both sides, make double-sided copies, and use the backs of single-sided documents that have served their purpose.
  • Think before you print. Double check print/copy properties before you print, only print the necessary pages, and share documents whenever possible.
  • Put forms, newsletters, articles and any other applicable documents online. Your management, employees and customers will have immediate access to what they need. 
  • Recycle, recycle, recycle. If your company does not yet have a recycling program, get one started. If you have one, make sure you employees know how to properly use it. Be sure to use post-consumer recycled paper whenever possible.

Going completely paperless is a commitment that will take your company time to fully implement. A first step is getting better organized electronically Then, start by improving overall automation of processes. As identified by the numbers, if every business made improvements it would make a significant impact to climate change.

Global Warming: Is it really up for debate?

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There has been a lot of political rhetoric on whether global warming and climate change is fact or fiction. There have been some interesting recent articles from reputable sources on the issue. Take a look…

  1. The Economist, A Record Making Effort
  2. Treehugger, Which Side of the Global Warming Debate has been Right
  3. New York Times, Global Warming

Can Cloud Computing Help Global Warming?

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That is what Rob Bernard, the chief environmental strategist for Microsoft, is projecting in his latest article in Sustainable Industries. Microsoft recently commissioned a study with Accenture to analyze the energy and greenhouse gas use for cloud-hosted systems such as Microsoft versus on their own hosted systems.

The study found that organizations could save energy and carbon by switching to the cloud. It found the smaller the organization, the larger the benefit.  The study predicted an effective carbon footprint reduction of up to 90 percent over using local servers for smaller organizations (less than 100 people). For large corporations, the predicted savings were typically 30 percent or more. This is a pretty remarkable carbon and energy savings for smaller businesses.

In addition, cloud computing services can generally save companies money. It ranges from 25-50% savings in your IT costs. PC Computing has a nice article, 13 Terrific Cloud Services for Small Businesses, which provides an overview of companies that offer cloud based computing for small companies.

Global Warming Increases- The Time to Act is Now!

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The Guardian just came out with the article, “World is Warming Quicker than Thought” which cites a newly released Met Office report that says 2010 was the hottest year on record globally. Another report entitled World Meteorological Organization’s 2009 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin also cited that greenhouse gases have reached their highest levels with an increase of 27.5% since 1990.

The reality is that global warming isn’t going away. We as a society can’t hide from it any longer. The U.S., along with China, is the largest global gas emitter in the world.

The question is what are you doing about it? Are you part of the solution or still contributing to the problem?

Each of us has the power to make a difference in the warming of the planet. The time to act is now! Commit to one step–one action, that will help reduce global warming.

Here are some good ideas to get you started,

15 Things You Can Do to Stop Global Warming

The Top 50 Things to Do to Stop Global Warming

Sign the Copenhagan Communique on Climate Change

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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:

Carbon Disclosure Project

Climate Wire

Climate Ark

Extreme Ice Survey