TIPS TO HELP YOUR OFFICE BE GREEN! SIMPLE 20 MINUTE ACTIONS TO GET YOU STARTED (First published in Who Cares Magazine, Spring, 1995) Written by: Robin Caiola and Naila Bolus, Co-Directors, 20/20 Vision Workout for the Earth Lets face it - one of the overriding characteristics about working today is a heavy work load and incredibly long hours. Whether we are working in a homeless shelter, volunteering for disabled children, or working for a public policy organization, we rarely have the time to step back and assess our individual or organizational impact on the environment. Yet, there are innumerable simple, inexpensive and practical things that can be done to reduce our impact on the environment. Below are ten easy actions designed to take 20 minutes or less to get your organization started. You can take it slow by implementing one idea per month or do them all at once. Good luck and have fun. Form a Green Team Establishing two or more employees to oversee the "greening" of your office can both ensure that things get done by making the tasks more manageable, and make implementing the changes more fun. ACTION: Form your Green Team by recruiting employee volunteers or by making it part of employees' job descriptions. Try to select a diverse representation (employees from different departments or managerial levels) on the Green Team. Your Green Team can take the lead on the actions listed below and help to educate others in the office. Purchase Green Products If you're like most organizations you want to use recycled and unbleached office supplies and paper but you don't know where to find them. Everything from recycled and unbleached file folders to paper, stationery to toilet paper, towels to coffee filters can now be purchased. ACTION: Write or call Green Seal to get the most up to date list of recycled and unbleached products, their Green Certified Products list or the Green Buying Guide. Green Seal, 1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20036; phone: 202-331-7337. You can purchase these products directly from the companies that produce them, but it is also important to work with your current printers and office supply stores to purchase these products so that they become available to others. Send a letter with the list of Green Suppliers requesting that your vendor purchase the products. Follow-up your action with as many phone calls or personal visits as it takes! Stamp Out Junk Mail Most of us get inundated with mail we don't want and didn't ask for. If you saved up all the unwanted paper you'll receive this year, you'd have the equivalent of one and a half trees. ACTION: Write to or call Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, 11 West 42nd Street, P.O. Box 3861, New York, New York 10163-3861; phone: 212-768-7277 ext. 300. Ask them to stop your name from being sold. This action should reduce your junk mail by 75%. Encourage Public Commuting for the Community Everyone knows about the benefits of taking public transportation, walking, car pooling or biking to work. Commuting by public transportation takes as little as one-thirtieth the energy of commuting by car and significantly reduces smog, carbon dioxide (which contribute to global warming) and nitrogen oxides (which contribute to acid rain). Yet, seventy-six percent of all workers drive to work alone and 95% of commuters who drive to work park in spaces subsidized by their employer. Under current law employers give $160 per month of tax free parking to employees while public transportation is reimbursed at only $60 a month. ACTION: Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Expose the inequity of parking subsidies versus public transportation. Also, express your support for a "parking cash out" law that would require those employers who pay for leased employee parking to offer a cash-equivalent amount to employees who use other forms of transportation, either as a cash payment or a transit/carpool subsidy. Clean More Cleanly Many commercial cleaning products contain chemicals which are toxic, corrosive or flammable, causing pollution indoors and contamination of the water supplies. Your cleaning company may be using products that are harmful to the environment and you. ACTION: Write a letter or make a phone call to your cleaning company. Find out what products they are using to clean your office space. Suggest alternative cleaning products that wont harm people or the environment. Ask them to switch to an all-purpose product such as BCD Altra Concentrated Cleaner available at 1-800-422-9290 ext. 2161. If bought in bulk these products should not cost more than commercial products. While You're On Break, Give the Earth a Break The average office worker in America goes through approximately 500 disposable cups every year. If 10 million office workers used their own mugs, we could save around 166 feet of landfill space per person per year - or a total of about 312,500 miles of trash a year. Next time you get a cup of coffee, cold drink or lunch think about what you can do to lessen your impact on the waste stream. ACTIONS: + If there is a place to wash dishes, your office should have reusable dishware (mugs, plates, forks, spoons) readily available. It's as easy as employees bringing in a few old dishes from home. + Many carry-outs give discounts to customers who bring in mugs for refill. Arrange with the owners of your most frequented carry-out to also give discounts if customers bring in a reusable container for salads or other foods. (Some carry-outs even let you weigh your reusable bowl or plate before you fill it so it does not get factored into the cost.) Save Money and Trees Organizations use lots and lots of paper. Think about how many drafts your newsletter goes through before final approval. Try to use your computer network or documents on disk to transfer and edit your work rather than laser printing multiple drafts. According to one estimate, enough paper is thrown away by offices every year to build a 12 foot high wall from New York City to Los Angeles. ACTIONS: Remember to: + Copy on both sides of the paper. It will reduce your coping in half and actually save you money. Put up a large reminder note by the copier so employees in their usual frantic rush will remember. + Keep a paper box next to your copier or printer. When bad copies or insufficient drafts are made either reuse the paper by printing on the second side, use it as scratch paper, or send it to the recycling center. Unplug and Conserve Every year, American businesses spend $4 billion unnecessarily on inefficient use of office equipment (copiers, computers, postage machines, and printers). The truth is by turning office equipment off when not in use, you can save up to 90% of the energy currently being consumed. ACTIONS: + Turn off printers, postage machines, and copiers when not in use. If your copier has a "standby" mode you can use that too. + Turn off the computer if it is not used for at least 15 minutes (by the way laptop computers are 95% more energy efficient than typical PC's.) + While you're at it, don't forget about the lights! Green Your Neighborhood Many cities have tree planting programs, which enable you to beautify your neighborhood and increase the quality of the air. For example, the DC Government has a program that allows citizens to apply to plant up to ten trees and the government supplies the trees. This could be a great office activity that doesn't take a lot of time, is fun, and you see direct results. ACTION: Call your Department of Public Works. Ask if your city or town has a similar tree planting program. If so, take the necessary steps to implement it. If you don't have a program, write to your mayor or other local public official and ask that your community implement such a program. Help Change Policy - The Power of the Pen According to a recent Gallup Poll of Members of Congress: The most effective means of gaining attention [of policy makers] are letters: non-form, personally written, from heads of home district groups or individual constituents." Whether the issue is protecting water, air or land, your organization can make a difference, with only a small commitment of your time. ACTION: Join 20/20 Vision. Every month, you'll receive the most effective action that you can take, depending on where you live, to influence environmental issues. You will also receive useful tips on writing letters and making phone calls to policy makers and reports on what happened to the actions that you took. Call at 800-669-1782 or send $20 to 20/20 Vision, 1828 Jefferson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20036. ________________________________________________________ Resources for further action: * 50 Simple Things Your Business Can Do To Save The Earth, by The Earth Works Group * The Business Environmental Handbook, by Marty Westerner Our Logo 20/20 Vision 1828 Jefferson Place, NW Washington, DC 200036 (202) 833-2020 (202) 833-5307 (fax) (800) 669-1782 (info) vision@igc.apc.org Last Updated: Wednesday, July 19, 199