Green Options » saving paper

Zinio: Helping Make Your Magazine Subscriptions Sustainable

Robin Shreeves — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:00:19 +0000

Looking for a way to reduce your paper waste but keep your favorite magazines? Zinio may be a solution for you. It’s a digital magazine service that lets you view your magazines on your computer instead of receiving them in print format.

Zinio gives you instant access to the magazines that you have purchased through their website in one of two ways.

The first way is just click and read. There is no software to download or install. You view the magazine from their website from a library of magazines that you have set up. To view the magazines, you need to be connected to the Internet.

The second way is to download and install the Zinio Reader and copy the magazines onto your computer. Then you can download the magazines onto your computer and have them available anytime whether you’re connected to the Internet or not.

Towards a Paperless Office

Megan Prusynski — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:33:21 +0000

The paperless office idea emerged along with the personal computer, its premise being that someday in the future, we will no longer need to use paper because everything will be in a digital format. While the truly paperless office may still be a myth and a seemingly impossible goal, it is still something we can move towards in our business operations. Paper and paperboard products constitute the largest portion of our waste stream, so reducing our paper use and recycling paper materials has a lot of potential to reduce the waste flowing into landfills and save trees at the same time.

While planning my business, I have been trying to find a few ways I can be a nearly paperless operation. I already send digital PDF files for invoices, agreements, and proofs rather than sending my clients paper documents. I use digital signatures for contracts, communicate via e-mail or phone, and avoid printing anything that I don’t absolutely need to. Still, my office is hardly paperless and there’s a lot more I plan to do as I formalize my practices and launch my business. Below are some suggestions for going paperless.

Eco-Entrepreneurs Are Talking About: Greening Your Office

mcmilker — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:14:53 +0000

This post is the first in a series of roundups I’ll be doing featuring articles from our community journals and forums. To create your own journal click on the “Get a Journal Now” button at Green Options. com. To contribute to our forums, click on the “community” tab on the top right side of the Green Options home page.

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!

Polar Bears to Receive Much-Needed Protection

Joshua S Hill — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:40:18 +0000

It was just over a month ago that I last wrote about the fate of the polar bears. The US Fish and Wildlife Service had just announced that they needed more time to determine whether the beautiful creatures should be put on the endangered species list. Conservationists were up in arms, and many were pointing to Bush’s desire to sell off parts of the Alaskan coast for oil and gas exploration as the reason the animals were being risked.

Today though, the British Times Online is reporting that the American government is to add the polar bear to its list of endangered species.

The US Interior Department has made an announcement saying that the decision to put polar bears on the list will come “sooner rather than later.”

As mentioned above, conservationists have linked the delay in protecting the bears to oil and gas exploration hopes in the Alaskan region. Chris Tollefson, speaking for the US government, said that the timing between the two events – protecting the bears and plans to sell off exploration rights – were simply coincidental. “They have moved on parallel tracks, but both driven by the complexity of the science involved,” he said.

Andrew Wetzler, of the US National Resources Defense Council, said that it would be a rare acknowledgement of damage caused by global warming from the White House.

However, there are still “reservations,” according to Tollefson, referring to Alaska’s Republican governor, Sarah Palin, who says polar bears could still be protected while still expanding the oil business. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Photo Courtesy of mape_s via Flickr