Green image: sxc.hu

With so much emphasis on being “green” and environmentally conscious, you might want to consider how you can comply for 2010 without being excessively neurotic.  Some people get carried to the extreme with being “green,” that they’re not practical at all.

However, there are some things you can do.  Such as:

• Separate trash in office and home, especially if your city or town has separated collection containers or bins.
• Take separated materials to recycling areas.  Some of these even give you money for what you’ve collected, particularly in states where you must pay deposits on cans and containers.
• Reuse paper…for instance, we use the blank side of paper for making copies when we can.
• Purchase recycled materials, if it’s practical.  Sometimes recycled material isn’t as good for some projects.
• See if you can find ways to use items so they won’t go to waste.
• Take this as your slogan – Condense, conserve, and recirculate.

(Ask grandma or great grandma about reusing  and conserving materials.  They were good at this because there often wasn’t money for buying new.  The older generations didn’t grow up in the “throw-away” society.)

What are your “green” plans for 2010?

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Going green image: sxc.hu

Some of the strategies almost seem counterproductive though, taking more time, energy and expense than merited to cut down on energy, trash, and to utilize resources that don’t pollute.  This doesn’t mean that we neglect doing what we can, in our way, to make our world a safer place. 

We simply have to balance the the information and find out what is extreme and really not useful, while sifting out what will really prove helpful.

Perhaps to remind ourselves to keep “going green” in mind, to practice as we can, without it being a detriment to our business and lives, we can choose office supplies in green colors.  In addition, some greens will have a soothing effect on you, as do the greens of nature.

Do you choose office supplies in tones of green?

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Image: sxc.hu

What are procedures you can do to be ”green?”

Paint the office green, I guess, to remind yourself.

Use green stationery, sticky notes, pens, pencils and organizers.

Then… recycle, reuse, and refuse to be wasteful. 

• Separate out the recyclable items.  We have a wastebasket for all the paper goods that we can dispose of in the paper waste at our recycling center.
• We separate cardboard for that bin at the center.
• Some of our paper goods are made from recycled materials.
• We use the back side of waste paper for printing and photocopying when we don’t need a clean copy.  We use these for taking notes, too.
• Any plastic containers with the numbers 1 or 2 are separated out for the recycling center.
• Metal, glass, colored bottles, aluminum cans…all are separated accordingly for the center.  (This separating has become automatic, so isn’t a chore anymore.)
• We use light bulbs that save electricity in office and home.

That is a starter…but they’re many of the practices we utilized in the home and on the farm when I was growing up.  We called it being economical.  Perhaps it also was a carryover from my parents having grown up during the Depression years.

What are you doing in your office that’s “green?”  You don’t have to go to the extreme or become involved in anything expensive.  Just institute simple, commonsense measures.

Post from: My Organized Biz