How to Green Your Work

So You Wanna Do More

Not content with just getting by? Go hardcore.

1. Arrange for a satellite office to be set up closer to employees’ homes.

2. Encourage corporate financial investment in green products, companies, and banks.

3. Suggest that your company purchase its power from renewable sources (see if your local utility has a green power program).

4. Greening your company’s building can save money, boost productivity, earn respect, and have huge environmental impacts (buildings accounts for roughly 30% of total CO₂ emissions). Solar power generation, solar water heating, green roofs, greywater storage and recycling, permeable pavement, low-flow toilets and waterless urinals can all lighten the load on the planet and save cold, hard cash. LEED also has a recently developed certification program for existing buildings.

5. Ask yourself if your company is doing as much good for the world as you want it to be doing. If it doesn’t meet your standards, consider seeking a greener job, or…

6. Start your own company! Build a green business from the ground up. A 2006 report released by Royal Dutch Shell estimates that roughly a trillion dollars are to be made by green businesses worldwide in the next five years.

By the Numbers

Want the real deal? Here's where the rubber meets the road.

Once: the number of times that most of the more than 25 billion cartons manufactured in the U.S. are used.

55: percentage of water saved by producing recycled paper as compared to virgin paper. Recycled paper also takes 60-70% less energy to produce than paper from virgin pulp.

120: tons of steel saved if every UK office worker used one less staple a day.

8 billion: gallons of gas saved if every commuter car in the U.S. carried just one more person.

Getting Techie

Not content with the high level? Here's the nitty gritty.

1. We turn off our computers at night, so why are our power bills still so high? Many appliances have "standby" settings that draw power--sometimes as much as 15 or 20 watts--even when they're turned off. A 2002 report found that: "Lopomo [low power mode] energy use is responsible for about 10% of total electricity use in California homes." To make sure that computers, monitors, printers, photocopy machines, televisions, VCRs, DVD players, and microwave ovens are all the way off, pull the plug rather than flipping the switch on the machine. Also make sure any climate control systems are turned off when they aren't needed and set to energy-efficient modes when in use. You might be surprised by how much energy this saves.

2. It is not uncommon for interior air to be more contaminated with toxic chemicals than the air outdoors. Furniture (especially particle board), carpeting, and paint are common sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a family of chemicals that are frequently “offgassed.” VOCs have been linked to birth defects, endocrine disruption, and cancer. Especially if your office is well-insulated (which it should be for energy purposes) toxins can’t get out easily. Greenguard is a non-profit certifier of products that help maintain healthy interior air. Herman Miller, Haworth, Knoll, Keilhauer, and Izzydesign all offer Greenguard certified furniture options.

3. The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Rainforest Alliance both certify wood that has come from sustainably harvested forests or is reclaimed. When your office is looking for new desks, bookshelves, dividers, etc., try to find sustainable wood products that do not contain formaldehyde or other harmful VOCs.