In honor of Earth Day, here are some great tips that are easy to implement. At least pick one – you’ve gotta start somewhere!
- In your home or office, position your desk and seats to optimize for natural light. Not only will it save you from using electricty for lighting and heat, but many scientists believe that natural light offers many positive health benefits as well.
- Reduce your standby power usage. Many electronics, including TVs, computers, office equipment, video game consoles and home theater systems continue to use electricity when they appear off in standby mode. Utilizing a surge protector with an on/off switch can help you control standby power usage from multiple devices.
- Optimize your PCs power settings. By setting up a power profile, you’ll teach your PC how to conserve its own electricity. I tell my computer to turn off the displays after 2 minutes of idle activity and to sleep after 5 minutes.
- Recycle your old equipment. Computers and common office equipment oftentimes contains very hazardous chemicals, including mercury, lead, and PCBs and can significantly damage the earth’s ecosystem. Be sure to recycle or dispose of your PCs, printers, monitors, batteries, and other equipment safely.
- Offices use a lot of paper, so be mindful of your printing habits. Buy paper made with 100 percent post-consumer waste, print only when needed, and of course, print on both sides when possible.
- Make sure you refill ink cartridges rather than buying new ones, or at the least, dispose of your printer cartridges at local stores that offer cartridge recyling services.
- Don’t hesitate to invest in upgrading parts of your home in the name of energy efficiency. If you work at home like we do, your home is your workplace as well, and you may spend twice as much time there as a result.
- Reduce the usage of air conditioning by making an organic roof garden. Water the plants every day, smell the fragrance of flowers, and watch small creatures flying around!
- When your laptop battery is full, just unplug the power source.
- Save paper by printing double-sided. Refill ink cartridges instead of buying new ones. Remove the hard drive from old computers then recycle it.
- Spend some of the time you would usually be commuting growing fresh herbs / veggies / fruit in your garden…and compost!”
- Use a hybrid electric source and a laptop with an earth friendly battery!
And here is a very interesting fact:
Did you know that if the 40% of U.S. jobs that could be done from home actually were, those 50 million teleworkers could save 587 million barrels of oil, and reduce CO² by 101 million metric tons?
Hummmmm……. Happy Earth Day!
CQI Associates