A company can begin to green their operations today with no capital investment

This is an article I wrote for the website (www.emqus.com) where I work.  I really liked it, and I wanted to put it in my blog too.  It is amazingly simple to start greening a company.  And little steps that can be taken now with no cost whatsoever can turn into bigger steps that cost money in the beginning, but pay for themselves and then start saving the company money in the long-term.  

There are a lot of ways a company can go green.  Most of them require an initial investment.  A company could buy newer, more energy-efficient IT infrastructure, invest in CFL or LED lighting, invest in power management software or consolidate servers to ensure that they are running at their maximum capacity.  

All of these things net a positive return on the initial investment, but they do require an initial outlay of cash.  If an organization that wants to go green simply cannot find any money in the budget to begin the process, here are some things that they can do today to help the environment and their bottom-line at no cost.  

1) Turn computers off at the end of the day.  Leaving PCs on all night wastes energy, costs organizations millions in electricity costs and contributes to carbon emissions.

2) The last person to leave any room, be it the server room, the conference room or their office, should be responsible for turning off the lights.  Using less electricity means emitting less carbon, but it also means a smaller electric bill.

3) Think before printing anything.  Can it simply be saved in a folder? Made into a PDF?  Paper comes from trees, and the fewer trees we have, the less carbon dioxide they are scrubbing from the atmosphere.

4) Reuse paper from printers, copiers and fax machines.  Often, documents print incorrectly or a document is put in the copier upside down.  Reuse that paper.  Simply put it back.  In addition, if a hard copy of a document is necessary, but it is for internal use only, why not print it on remnant paper?  Turn that unwanted document over and print on the other side.

5) Recycle.  This does take a little effort, but really, how hard is it to have a few bins around the office where people can put paper, plastic, aluminum, batteries and even printer cartridges?  If an organization makes it standard procedure to recycle, then it will just become second-nature for people to do it. 

6) Encourage people to bring in unwanted coffee mugs, dishware and cutlery for the office kitchen instead of buying one-use paper, plastic and styrofoam products.  

These are just a few of the ways that companies can go green at no cost.  This is not an exhaustive list.  The possibilities are endless. Get employees excited about being green.  Have a brainstorming session and ask everyone for their input.  Each organization has an opportunity to make an investment in the future with no money down.  

Energy-Efficiency Is An Easy Way to Save You Green

In these challenging economic times, a few dollars saved is a very good thing.  So if you can save some green while being green, then it is a bonus.  And there are lots of ways people can save green by being green.  One way is to control the amount of energy that your household appliances use.  Something that many people do not realize is that appliances use electricity even when they are shut off. Energy experts call these appliances vampires because they are plugged in to the wall socket sucking electricity all day and all night.  

I came across this cool diagram today illustrating the common household vampires and how much energy and money they drain.  If you want to find out how to make your home more energy-efficient, check out this website.  

The best way I have found to save energy is by unplugging unused appliances and shutting off the power strips for the TV and its peripherals and the computer and its peripherals when not in use. There are power strips you can buy that turn off after a certain period of inactivity.  

Always make sure to turn your computer off when not in use.  This is one of the most overlooked energy vampires. People leave their computers on for hours on end, and some people never turn them off at all.  And if your computer does not come with some form of power management capabilities, there is free power management software you can download. This will enable you to set your computer to shut off automatically after a specified period of inactivity.  

I have Windows Vista on my laptop, and I set the power management settings for both when plugged in and when powered by the battery to shut the computer down after 10 minutes of inactivity. And it will shut off, but if I just stepped away for a bit, it takes mere seconds for my computer to "wake up."  When done for the day, I simply shut it off and turn off my power strip.