Ed Schultz interviews Florida Rep. Alan Grayson about Congress finally demanding more transparency from the Federal Reserve, and auditing their massive secret bank bailouts. The recently passed legislation will now allow the Government Accountability Office to independently audit the Fed, and their nefarious Wall Street deals.  Alan Grayson and Ron Paul co-authored the amendment, which also had a whopping 311 co-sponsors in the house.

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“We need to stop giving money to the bad banks, they just eat it, they don’t actually hand it out to people and do anything useful with it. We have to give money to the good banks. The fundamental strategy that has been followed since the Bush Administration to try to recover from this is flawed…the good banks will go and make good loans to people, to businesses, to small businesses in particular, and the economy will recover.”

—Rep. Alan Grayson

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Until recently, I thought I did a pretty nice job of doing my part for the environment when it came to my home: using eco-friendly cleaning supplies, buying CFL’s, setting the timer to regulate heat and air, but the more I read, the more I find that I can do. There are also a ton of companies emerging that are trying to make an impact while reducing their footprint.

Below are a few of my favorite online destinations for cool products and information for the home and home office.

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Whether you’re working from home or from a downtown high-rise, you can conserve paper, reduce energy use, and produce less waste by keeping the environment in mind for all your office purchases. In this article, I’ll share ideas for stocking your green office and sources of green office products.

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Come join the discussion!

All entrepreneurs are interested in saving money and operating efficiently.

Eco-entrepreneurs also want to do so in a way that benefits the planet.

Perhaps because our companies’ missions, products and services are creatively and often elegantly eco, we find unique ways of doing that.

Take a look at some of Green Options ecopreneurs’ ideas on how to create an eco-office!

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Many small businesses are born in the most humble of beginnings: a small corner of a bedroom, the kitchen table of an apartment, maybe even a closet. Most expand to off-site offices as they grow, leaving behind the convenience of working from home for the increased visibility and professionalism of a “real office.” But for many types of businesses, having an off-site office is not at all necessary. Especially if much of the work revolves around a computer.

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Dispatch from greenprinteronline.com.

Check this: more than 30% of all the trees that are logged go to
make paper. That’s a lot of energy to kill all our poor, little green
friends: in fact, deforestation contributes between 20% and 25% of all carbon pollution,
which in turn accelerates global warming. And yes, we’ve heard it
before: recycle, recycle, recycle. But does it work? Yes, but….
according to the RFU, most of us still don’t do it as much as we’d like
to.

In Canada, we recovered only 44% of all paper products used and over 90% of all office paper is still made from virgin fibres.
Ouch, that hurts the feelings of treehuggers like us. Here are seven
easy office tips to save trees and cut down carbon emissions:

1. It’s what your mother always told you: Frugal is the new chic. When making copies, set your machine to use both sides of paper and cut your consumption by 50%.
2. A recycling bin beneath everyone’s desk. Hide a paper
   recycling receptacle next to every printer, copier and fax machine so
   that your work crew can get rid of unwanted paper in them. We are
   creatures of comfort and leisure: it’s easier to lean down than walk
   across the hall, non?
3. Print in carbon lite mode: To save even more
   ink, print in draft mode. It will usually lighten the shade, but you’ll
   still be able to read your copy clearly.
4. Cut the junk: Remove your office mailing address from the
   junk mass mailer’s list - if everyone in Canada did, we would cut
   emissions the equivalent of removing 3 million cards of the road. Huge.
5. Consider alternative paper: Think about buying paper made from treeless paper.
6. Buy recycled toner and ink: Cartridges contribute metal and
   plastic to landfills, but buying toner and ink that’s refilled can help
   alleviate this environmental burden.
7. Don’t forget the office loo: Toilet paper is often made from virgin fiber and up to 424,000 trees would be spared by replacing a 500-sheet roll of virgin fiber toilet paper.

Green Printer
(GP) is the only environmental printing company in North America that
sells brochures and other paper products in runs as low as 10 (instead
of 1000) in order to save trees and meet your organization’s unique
printing needs. And, GP works closely with and buys from paper mills
that run on clean energy and use offsets. What’s more, GP is not shy to
tell you to print less in order to save trees – and the planet. We’ve
also got a funky Eco Calculator.

In business, going green is more than a marketing slogan: it’s the new way of doing things. It’s an edge — a method by which you can improve your company’s bottom line while acting responsibly toward your customers, employees, and the environment.

Back home, you’ve swapped your incandescent bulbs for CFLs; installed low-flow shower heads, weather stripping and an electronic thermostat; you’re eating more local and organic foods; and recycling is finally second nature.

Good job. But how does one scale personal progress in green living to the more complex structures of the 21st Century workplace? At home, you have full control. But in a business setting, there are co-workers, customers, and possibly investors involved — and nobody is ever in a hurry to change traditional operating practices. Bringing sustainability into the workplace is a long-term commitment, whether you’re responsible for two employees or two thousand.

The good news is this: green business is profitable business. So. to help you get started, Lighter Footstep has rounded-up twelve specific specific actions you can take to starting greening the way you work. Pick a few, drop them into your organizer, and let’s get started!

Share the ride

Organizing an office carpool can be as easy as posting a notice on your lunchroom bulletin board. While the immediate personal benefits are obvious — reducing employee impact on traffic while preserving our finite energy resources — it’s a great team-builder, too. Look for opportunities to place notices on company intranets and newsletters, and consider incentives for groups which manage to organize and sustain meaningful ride-sharing.

Shut down electronics at night

Every night, computers display screensavers to millions of perfectly empty cubicles. While it’s convenient to be checking email within moments of picking up your morning coffee, a computer works approximately as hard to produce a screensaver as a spreadsheet or any other routine task. That means many office computers waste twice as much power idling as they do actually working. Take a moment to shut down at the end of the day. Modern desktops boot fairly quickly, and you’ll save thousands of watts per year.

Dine out on eating in

Client lunch dates are an important part of business culture. But if you’re routinely leaving the office to eat — particularly if that involves driving — consider packing lunch. It’s probably healthier for you, you’ll save gas, and you’ll recover all that weekly driving time in workday productivity. Are you responsible for other workers? Make sure they have facilities to lunch-in, as well: seating away from their desks, access to a microwave, and a sinks for cleaning reusable utensils and food containers.

Get paperless

Moving to digital documents — through creation or by scanning paper documents into a database — is usually mentioned as a means to save trees and paper. This is true. But the biggest payoff, from a business standpoint, is in data recall. Most modern desktop operating systems now feature robust search functions which drill deep into a document text’s and its particulars, such as who originated it and when. Paperless offices can save storage space and thousands of man hours each year, just by getting their data off paper and onto networks where people can access the information. It’s win-win: save forests and precious time with digital documents.

Recycle the paper you must use

Whether you’re disposing of scanned documents or just juggling the little scraps of paper than tend to multiply like bunnies around the office, recycling is a no-brainer. Not only is it kinder to the environment, recyclable paper may actually be a salable commodity for larger offices and businesses. Set up convenient recycling hoppers around your workplace, along with smaller bins for each desk and cubicle. There’s no reason the zero waste can’t mean the office, too.

Be smart about lighting

Does your workplace have windows? Is their light blocked by cubicle walls and storage units? It might be time to rethink the arrangement of your workspace. Natural lighting is healthy and free — and it sure beats those industrial fluorescent tubes. Consider decentralizing the way individual spaces are lit. Rather than roof fixtures, it may be smarter to install energy efficient lighting at each desk. Of course, if you’re going CFL, be sure to add expended bulbs to the things that get properly recycled. And your mom was right: turn off lights when you’re done with them. Millions of watts are wasted each night lighting empty offices and parking lots. Save energy and curb light pollution by illuminating only what you really need.

Leverage instant messaging and teleconferencing technology

During World War II, offices and alleyways were plastered with posters urging resource conservation. One of the most common was, "Is this trip really necessary?" The slogan still applies today, particularly in view of broadband network connections and powerful real-time instant messaging and teleconferencing tools. With fuel prices up and travel more expensive than in previous years, it makes sense to replace some trips and conventions with electronic events. Not every computer needs a camera — and this might represent a security risk to some companies, anyway — but teleconferencing is a great way to save resources while improving communication with customers and co-workers.

Green your office cleaning supplies

Office supply cabinets contain some of the most powerful toxins allowed for sale — often in institutional quantities. Just as at home, swapping chemical cleaning agents for non- or less-toxic natural equivalents can go a long way toward greener, safer indoor spaces.

Reduce indoor air pollution

Indoor smoking is already a thing of the past in many parts of the world. But offices remain loaded with plastics, artificial fibers, and finished surfaces which may disperse Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the air. Some kinds of common office equipment — fax machines, copiers, and printers — emit pollutants and odors. Keep office air conditioning and ventilation equipment in good repair. Locate offending equipment away from occupied workspaces. And take air quality concerns into consideration when making purchase decisions.

Replace the watercooler with a quality filtration unit

There’s no reason "water cooler talk" can’t be "water filter chat." The ubiquitous water cooler is a nice convenience for office workers, but bottled water, even five gallon quantities, isn’t a good deal. Consider installing reverse osmosis water filters, instead. In many cases, the quality of filtered tap water exceeds that of bottles, particularly when you take haphazard cleaning of office coolers into account. Go with the filter, and encourage employees to bring stainless steel or food-grade polycarbonate water bottles to work, rather than wasting paper cups.

Buy reconditioned office equipment and recycled supplies

Virtually everything for modern business can be purchased in refurbished condition: computers, desks, copiers — you name it. Refurbished goods are often sold with manufacturer’s warranties and are in most respects identical to new items. Expect to save 20-30 percent on refurbished equipment, and up to 50 percent on used. Recycled office supplies are available from paper to printer cartridges. Choosing refurbished or recycled gear is good for the bottom line and for the Earth, keeping older equipment out of landfills and saving resources which would have been used to manufacture something new.

Form a green office committee

Sustainability in business is a day-by-day, department-by-department commitment. Form a standing committee to regularly brainstorm and implement green strategies. And here’s a little secret: it’s usually the front-line employees, not middle managers, who find effective and practical economies. Ask for their input, act on their best suggestions, and reward results.

Get the idea? Once you get started, other actions will begin to suggest themselves. Network with peers to find out what is working for them. Provide green living information to your staff — keeping green issues top of mind is how real change becomes self-sustaining. And and if you already have some ideas on best practices for green business, please share them in the comments section.

Here’s to your success!

Copyright © 2007 Lighter Footstep Media

A recent survey found that 73% of people believe it is important that their employer be an environmentally and socially responsible company. However, energy saving measures people take in their own home don’t always carry over in to office. Ninety-two percent of those surveyed said they turned off lights in unoccupied rooms in their own homes, yet only 52% admitted to following the same practice at work.

The survey was sponsored by Sun Microsystems, whose Vice President of Eco Responsibility, Dave Douglas says:

Businesses don’t cut power consumption — people do. If you’re an employee, these survey results show that you have an enormous opportunity to make a difference for our planet and to help America’s business make better use of their economic resources. If you’re an employer, bridge this gap by communicating about the issue and how everyone can benefit by taking small steps. The good news is that your employees care about the environment, but they may need your help in realizing how much they can actually make a difference.

Some small steps you can take:

• Turn off lights in unoccupied rooms such as kitchens, break rooms, and conference rooms. To help remind others to do the same, create a small sign to post on the door or above the light switch. If there is plenty daylight is coming in, keep the lights off until needed.
• Turn off your computer at the end of the day, and set it to go into energy saving mode (sleep, or hibernation) after a period of inactivity. Unplugging it at the end of the day will also save energy. Likewise, turn off the monitor when you’re away from your desk.
• When printing or photocopying use both sides of the paper. If possible, set the default settings on printers and photocopiers to double-sided.
• If your workplace offers recycling, do your part and recycle.
• Cut back on paper cups and use your own mug for coffee/tea and water.

These are just a few small things, but if you do them every day, and you can get your co-workers to do the same, these little things will add up to have a noticeable impact.

The survey, released on Wednesday, was commissioned by Sun Microsystems, Inc, and conducted by Harris Interactive.

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Q & A: How Can We Ask People To Recycle When It Is So Difficult?

Remarkable: Recycled Office Products Made Cool

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