Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

The Sustainable Office – Part 9: Food

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Choosing a sustainable diet is not only one of the best ways to reduce your impact on the environment, but it can also substantially improve your health and quality of life. Encouraging your employees to eat green will reduce your organization's impact on the environment, and just may give ...

The Sustainable Office – Part 8: Furniture

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Remember when you were a kid, and you had that one friend who had all the cool, crazy furniture all over his house like car seats for chairs and couches, road signs for coffee tables, and tobacco spittoons for water pitchers? Well that furniture is still cool because not ...

The Sustainable Office - Part 7: Air

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

On average adults spend over 90% of their time indoors, and the air indoors is almost always more polluted than outdoor air due to dust, mold, radon, and other chemicals. Recently, it has been recognized that poor indoor air quality can lead to lower productivity, missed work days, and illness ...

The Sustainable Office - Part 6: Water

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

From pollution dilution to cleaning and hydration, water is pretty darn useful. And, at less than a third of a cent per gallon in the US, water is basically free. That's got to be the best bang for your buck I have ever heard of. Inexpensive water does not come ...

The Sustainable Office - Part 5: Packaging

Monday, December 8th, 2008

If you look at the waste in your office's trash bin, I would bet the vast majority of it, aside from paper, is packaging: disposable coffee cups, yogurt containers, single serving food wrapping, cardboard boxes, etc. A friend of mine once spent a year in Africa, and when he came ...

The Sustainable Office - Part 4: Commuting

Monday, November 17th, 2008

There are so many reasons to make your commute to work more sustainable, and there are just as many ways to achieve a greener commute. On top of reducing your impact on the environment, greening your commute by walking, cycling, using public transit, or any other method can get you in ...

Eco-gesture of the day - Take 8: Second-hand clothes!

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Second-hand clothes are awesome. I don't feel a need to support that with any evidence, so I won't. In addition to being awesome, pre-owned clothes offer a surprising number of benefits to the environment, society, and your wallet. While it is well-known that buying second-hand is much cheaper than buying new ...

The Sustainable Office - Part 3: Paper and Ink

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Paper and ink are two of the things most consumed by offices, and that consumption comes along with some hefty environmental side-effects. The effects of using paper are well-known (deforestation, energy use, water use, etc.), yet offices around the world still consume astounding amounts of the stuff. It was ...

Eco-gesture of the day – Take 7: Vampire power!

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

You see all those appliances around you? Your computer, your TV, your cell phone charger? All the ones that appear to be off? Well, they're not off. In fact, they are sucking power and costing you money right now. It's called standby or vampire power, and it is a ...

The Sustainable Office - Part 2: Lighting

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Depending on the estimate, lighting accounts for 20%-35% of energy use in commercial buildings, and a significant chunk of your expenses. Lighting in your work environment affects the way you feel and how productive you are. Let's take a look at some ways to decrease costs and increase ...