Greening Your Office Area. Sheela Backen

Transcription

1 Greening Your Office Area Sheela Backen 1

2 Introduction Greening Your Office Area Learn different strategies for going green 2

3 Agenda Reduce Energy Use Change your lighting Eliminate Waste Complete the Loop Buy Recycled Power Down Reduce your paper consumption Reduce what you can Recycle Audit your waste Office items that can be recycled on campus Information 3

4 Reduce Energy Use A 2001 report by the US Department of Energy found that "computers, office equipment, and other appliances" are driving America s increased demand for ever more energy consumption both at home and at work. With commercial energy use increasing two percent per year, according to the report, you can do your part to reverse the trend. 4

5 Office equipment: Look for items bearing the "Energy Star" label. Energy Star is a voluntary program run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that labels equipment using less energy than standard models. Furthermore, many Energy Star products have other eco-friendly features, such as printers that print on both sides of the page and fax machines that can scan and send double-sided print-outs. 5

6 According to the EPA, a home office outfitted exclusively with Energy Star equipment (computer, monitor, printer, and fax) can save enough electricity to light the entire home for more than four years. 6

7 Change Your Lighting Purchase compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which use 66 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, each CFL you buy will save about $45 over the long life of the bulb. (CFLs last more than 13 times as long as incandescent bulbs.). 7

8 Eliminate Waste Many state-level recycling initiatives state that the average office employee generates a half-pound of paper waste every day. But every half-pound of paper that an office recycles saves the equivalent of one pound of greenhouse gas emissions, plus the equivalent weight in trees. Remember to keep your own daily consumption of paper out of the landfill. 8

9 Complete the Loop Buy Recycled Paper made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled content is often the same price as allvirgin paper. Advances made in recycle content paper has made the paper performance equal to virgin material. What s more, you can find products like envelopes, calendars, planners, and stationery also made from recycled paper. Buy in bulk: You can save money by buying in bulk. Co-op America buys a year s supply of 100 percent post-consumer recycled copy paper. 9

10 Remanufactured ink and laser toner for printers and fax machines save you money while you save the Earth. Remember to close the waste loop by turning in your old toner cartridges for recycling. Call ISW at to have your toner cartridges picked up for recycling, or you can put them in your office paper recycle bin and Custodial will pick them up, and set them out for ISW to pick up. 10

11 Power Down Turn off your computer and other office equipment when you leave your office. Set equipment to go to "sleep" mode when not in use. An easy way to turn off all your equipment at once is to plug it all into one surge protector with an on/off switch. According to the Energy Star program, activating sleep settings on just one computer can prevent about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year. 11

12 Reduce Your Paper Consumption You can cut down on paper use by making some simple changes of habit. Set your printer to print on both sides of the paper, and modify the format of standard documents (wider margins, smaller font size) to fit more text on a single page. Edit documents on screen to avoid printing draft copies, and circulate memos and reports via when you can. Convert old single-side pages into scratch pads, and reuse envelopes. 12

13 Use incoming shipping envelopes and boxes for your outgoing mail. When you update your office area send your excess supplies, outdated, CD s, video tapes, computers, monitors, printers, other electronics and office furniture to Surplus Property for recycling. Phone

14 Recycle Recycle the packaging your purchases come in. If you remove the plastic from the box or paper backing you can recycle the paper part of the packaging. All of your recyclables can be put into one bin. ISW is currently doing single stream recycling. 14

15 Audit Your Waste Look at the trash in the waste baskets in your office area. Sort out what could be recycled and what is really trash. Most of what is produced in an office area can be recycled. 15

16 Office Items That Can Be Recycled on Campus 16

17 Information Integrated Solid Waste (ISW) section offers clean out bins, copy room bins, and desk side recycle bins. For more information on what is recyclable please call: ISW at