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.  

Every Day Is a Chance to Live Green

I strive to live every day by my motto that "less for me means more for others."  By this I don't mean that people should take more than their share of resources because others are doing without.  I mean that if each and every one of us made small changes to our lifestyles, we could save countless resources for others. 

• According to Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe, if you sit down to an 8 oz. steak, the "feed cost" of that steak is 45-50 people with empty bowls in front of them, bowls that could have been filled with a full cup of cooked cereal grains.
• If we recycled 100 million unused cell phones, we could save enough energy to power 194,000 homes in the US for a year.  
• We go through 100 Billion plastic bags per year in the US, less than 1% of which get recycled.  An estimated 12 Million barrels of oil is required to make them, and the annual cost to US retailers of giving them out is estimated at $4 Billion.  
• The chopsticks that you get with your Chinese takeout cost China approximately 25 Million trees a year to make.
• Americans consume an estimated 70 Million+ water bottles a day, and only 14% get recycled. 
• Each person in the US uses an average of 700 pounds of paper products per year.

So I don't eat a lot of red meat.  I do eat it, though, I won't deny it.  I know being a vegetarian would be even better for the planet, though. I have had the same cell phone for a little over two years.  It is only the second one I have ever owned (I lost my first cell phone).  When this phone finally does need to be replaced, all I have to do is return it to AT&T, because the carriers recycle used cell phones.  

I carry a reusable bag with me absolutely everywhere.  They make them to fit on your belt buckle or key chain.  

My boyfriend and I rarely if ever order takeout.  It is environmentally disastrous, not to mention lazy and bad for your waistline.

I rarely drink bottled water.  On occasion I have bought a bottle of water or juice while out, but I ALWAYS recycle the bottle.  

We do not keep paper towels or paper napkins in our apartment.  I use sponges and old socks for cleaning, and we simply wash our hands after a messy meal, or if really necessary, wipe our hands on a cloth towel.  

We swapped out all of the regular light bulbs in our apartment with CFLs.  I turn off the lights when I leave a room, and I shut off and/or unplug appliances I am not using.  

For every bag of garbage we make, we make 2-3 bags of recycling.  

We eat as local and as healthy as we can afford to-organic as much as possible.  

We don't own a car.  We both own a bicycle, though.  And we both walk a lot and use a fair amount of public transportation.  

We don't have an air conditioner.  We have a ceiling fan and a window fan, and we turn them off when we are gone.

I just live this way because I feel it is the right thing to do.  I don't feel like I am sacrificing anything.  I feel blessed by what I do have and feel that everyone should have the chance to experience abundance in their lives.  If everyone on Earth consumed the way we did in the US, we would need 5-6 Earths just to satisfy the demand for resources.  I personally think that says that we, as a country, are thoughtless and greedy.  The Earth is not ours to plunder.