Category Archives: in the office

12 in 12

Posted on February 17, 2012 by | 3 Comments


12 in 2012

The Green Queen thinks this is an easy way to remember your goals for the year: simply set 12 goals for 2012.

Check out this list and pick out a few or make a few of your own.

Plastic
• Buy fewer items in plastic containers.
• At work, purchase a drink glass with a unique design (so you can easily tell which one is yours)
• Bring your own travel coffee mug to your local coffee shop and ask if you can leave it there – some smaller shops will let you do this.

Paper
• Only print documents from the web, if you need to keep them, otherwise hold down your control button and the “print screen” button at the same time. Then simply go to a Word/WordPerfect document and hit your control + the “v” button. This will give you a document you can save on your hard drive with no need to print it out.
• Print on both sides of the paper.
• Use the reverse side of documents such as scrap paper and notepads.

If you’re already recycling, simply step up your efforts. The list of reusable items – from coffee filters to sandwich bags – is growing every day.

The Green Queen uses plastic baggies to store food and then reuses the baggies for walks with the dog.

Recycling at Work:
*Create trash hubs so you make it easier for everyone to participate. Put recycling containers and trash cans in the same area.
*Clearly label all bins with decals/signage of what is acceptable recycling materials. This includes trash cans which should be labeled “trash only—no recyclables.”
*Use different colored bins. Recycling bins should look different from trash cans.
*Use disposable bags only when necessary. If a bin is only collecting clean paper, do not use plastic liners.
*Educate. Tell people exactly what to do and send periodic reminders.

Recycling at Home
*Keep a set place to store recyclables.
*Ask your local trash company if they recycle. Or, once a week take your recycling to the local recycling bank.
*Cancel unwanted mail deliveries and newspapers, or read news and magazines online.
*Reuse paper around the house as scrap paper or packing material. Envelopes can also be reused.

The Green Queen is hoping this list will inspire you to pick one of two goals or maybe you’ll be able to do 12 in 12.

If you have a few ideas, please post them in the comments section to help inspire others.

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Posted in 3 Rs, house stuff, in the office, Uncategorized

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Don’t Crumple Your Christmas

Posted on December 21, 2011 by | 2 Comments

Crumpling up paper is a satisfying thing. Squeezing the paper tight in your fist, tossing it into the trash–who hasn’t done that? The menfolk at Enviro Girl’s house take particular joy from the crumple and toss–especially when it comes to disposing of gift wrap and mail.  And since most gift wrap isn’t recyclable, it’s important to resist crumpling it before you toss it into the garbage.

A simple experiment will demonstrate exactly why the crumple contributes to the Trash Factor, taking up unnecessary room in our garbage bags and landfills. Continue reading →

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Posted in 3 Rs, eco holidays, house stuff, in the office

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Office Eco Tips

Posted on October 7, 2011 by | 1 Comment

EcoLassie knows that most offices are pretty savvy these days in terms of recycling paper and other products they use on a daily basis. Many also encourage the practice of not printing out emails or other documents that can be read on your screen.

But there are always nifty ways to turn that eco-style up a notch. Here are a few you may not have thought of to put into practice in your workplace:

If your office has a vending machine, make sure it uses recyclable products. But a far better option is to ditch those machines altogether and allow workers to make their own beverages. You will be surprised at how much you cut down on recyclables by ringing in your own mug, too. And toss in a few volunteers from your cabinet lurking at the back that no one uses at home anymore for visitors. Even Starbucks gives a cup discount for customers who bring in their own mug!

 

 

 

 

Start a carpool at your office for co-workers who live within range of reach other. Better yet, ask your employer to provide a bicycle rack outside so those who live within cycling distance can take advantage of saving money, gas, and emissions while they get their daily exercise.

Try soy-based inks if you use a commercial printer. Besides being better for the environment, soy-based inks support US crop growers The good news is they produce shaper colors, too, without the same level of emitted toxins from petroleum inks. These also allow for better recycling as their ink is removed easier.

Finally, turn off the machines you can when you leave for the night. Activate the sleep mode for things like printers and copiers. Some fax machines have a sleep mode, too. Use power strips for ease in turning machines and things like your desk cell phone charger off when you go home. Just hit the “off” button on the power strip and you’re set.

It’s easy to conserve, recycle and save when you take stock of your environment.

 

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Posted in electronics, fast facts, green around the world, in the office

Increase Your Organization’s Communication & Decrease Your Paper Trail

Posted on April 11, 2011 by | 6 Comments

As president of her kids’ school’s PTA, Enviro Girl has printed out reams of paper to get the word out about meeting agendas, sock hops, silent auctions and fund-raisers.  She’s used up a small fortune in printer ink (it’s funny to think that designer perfume costs less than a comparative amount of printer ink) and while she’s bought paper made from recycled products, it’s still a lot of paper (and a LOT of trees).

But bringing people out to participate in the PTA without paper hand outs required some patience and ingenuity.  Here’s how the Happyland Elementary PTA has replaced paper:

1.  No longer sending out flyers trying to recruit parents.  Instead, members attend the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten orientations and talk up their organization to new parents on the spot.  This is targeted recruiting, since most of those parents have young children and aren’t committed to other things…yet.  Instead of wasting your resources on everybody, be smart about your efforts and focus only on those people.

2.  Instead of sending home regular reminders that they need volunteers (which made them look desperate to boot), they send out one form at the start of the school year asking what people would like to volunteer to do.  Returned forms are compiled on a spreadsheet with contact information.  Getting volunteers for, say, a sock hop, is easy–people said back in September they’d be willing to help, so it’s a matter of making phone calls off a spreadsheet that can be organized by activity for efficient targeting of volunteers.  Each committee chairperson gets a copy of the spreadsheet emailed to them, further reducing the paper the organization used.

3.  No more paper agendas or meeting minutes!  Enviro Girl set up a blog for free using WordPress.  On this blog she created different pages:  PTA by-laws, links to the school and district and other relevant sites for parents to explore, and then the blog feature runs updates, like meeting minutes and agendas.  Parents can subscribe to the site to get automatic updates.  The paper version of agendas and minutes are still available if people ask for them, but consider this:  6 years ago Enviro Girl printed and distributed 85 agendas and minutes each month.  Now she prints and distributes 15.

4.  Getting parents to the group’s website didn’t work 100%, so another parent set up a Facebook page for the organization.  That social network tool worked really well–pulling in younger parents through a virtual word of mouth and spreading information about PTA events through a grapevine many people connect to on a daily basis.

5.  Finally, for $15 the Happyland Elementary PTA bought their domain name so help parents easily find them online.  Anything any parent needs to know is literally at their fingertips if they can get on the internet.

Enviro Girl’s oldest son is a Boy Scout.  The parent information is emailed regularly to her inbox, but she sure wishes they’d create a website to keep people informed.  Sometimes she accidentally deletes important information, like camping dates.  She also notices many parents printing out the emails which sort of defeats the purpose of using email.  Finally, the parents get the emails, which doesn’t necessarily insure the boys will stay informed.  The boys are dependent on their parents passing information along since most of them don’t go on their parents’ email accounts.  Enviro Girl is convinced that setting up a site or Facebook page would solve their communication problems; anyone who needed information at any time could grab it and it would be easy to link to official Boy Scout pages and sites.

Websites and Facebook are better than email and less wasteful than paper when it comes to communicating with a group.  People can still enjoy a fair amount of privacy with different setting controls, yet if getting the word out is your group’s priority, you need to start sharing your information online.  Using websites and Facebook reduces waste and paper use and they are free, ultimately saving your organization money in the long run.

Tell the Eco Women, have you ditched paper as a primary mode of communication for large groups and organizations?

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Posted in 3 Rs, in the office, issues, living green on a budget, school, websites & blogs

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Stop The Crumple!

Posted on December 22, 2010 by | 4 Comments

Crumpling up paper is a satisfying thing. Squeezing the paper tight in your fist, tossing it into the trash–who hasn’t done that? The menfolk at Enviro Girl’s house take particular joy from the crumple and toss–especially when it comes to disposing of gift wrap and mail.

A simple experiment will demonstrate exactly why the crumple contributes to the Trash Factor, taking up unneccessary room in our garbage bags and landfills.

Procure an empty shoe box and a stack of paper. (Enviro Girl used 8.5″ X 11″ multipurpose paper.)  Lay the paper into the box. How many pieces can you fit? (Enviro Girl laid in one hundred.)

Good. Now pull out the paper and begin crumpling it up and setting it in the box. Now how many pieces can you fit? (Enviro Girl squeezed in ten.)

By resisting the urge to crumple and folding gift wrap flat and layering it in your garbage bags, you’ll be able to dispose of more paper in less space.  You’ll use fewer garbage bags, you’ll conserve space in your garbage bin and you’ll make fewer trips to take out your trash.   Your garbage collectors will thank you (especially the week after Christmas) and your landfills will thank you.

It’s  a simple way to reduce the Trash Factor at Christmastime:  Stop the Crumple.

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Posted in 3 Rs, eco holidays, house stuff, in the office

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Cheaper, Greener Landscaping

Posted on September 12, 2010 by | 4 Comments

Enviro Girl has a friend working on a new day care building.  She called the other day to ask about environmentally friendly sprinkler systems.  While Enviro Girl felt that grass should be watered–especially if children would be playing on it, there is no “green” sprinkler system.  That said, sprinkler systems can be set up efficiently to water during evening hours when water won’t evaporate and shut off during times of the year when watering isn’t necessary.   They can be a reasonable way to keep grass nice for kids to run around on.

But a state law mandates that children play on wood chips or rubber these days, so the grassy lawn in question was planned for the front of the day care building.   The bid for the lawn and the sprinkler system came in at $8,000.  Green Girl considered this and replied that some drought-resistant prairie plantings would look beautiful and require much less maintenance than a grassy lawn.  In the long run the day care would save on:

* mowing the grass weekly

* fertilizing the grass biennially

* edging the grass weekly.

Native plantings, such as a prairie or rain garden, would cost the day care half the price of installing sod or seeding a lawn and would require almost NO maintenance in the long haul.  It would also provide a beautiful, non toxic environment full of diversity to teach the children about bugs, butterflies, flowers and birds.

Excited about saving $4000 on an in-ground sprinkler system AND considerable cost savings in annual maintenance, Enviro Girl’s friend went back to the building committee and pitched this new idea.

She also referred to some local organizations, such as the Wild Ones, who advise on native landscaping and provide a wealth of information and resources.  As you can see by these pictures, a professional building can look beautiful without harming the environment.

Native landscaping means:

* no toxic chemicals used in fertilizing

* reduced storm water runoff because native plants have deep root systems that filter water better than grass

* diversity in insect and bird populations

* reduced maintenance, reduced fuel costs and related pollution in mowing

* better weed control because native plants have deep root systems that out-compete invasive weed species

* no required watering

* better air quality–prairies are CO2 swamps, taking in more carbon than they release into the air through photosynthesis.

Enviro Girl encourages anyone involved in a building project to consider native landscaping as a viable alternative to planting grass.   Native landscaping saves money and adds beauty while benefiting the planet.   Check out the Wild Ones to learn more about how you can include native landscaping at your workplace!

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Posted in 3 Rs, gardening, green around the world, health, in the office, issues, living green on a budget

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Take a Cue from Mr. Rogers

Posted on December 30, 2009 by | 4 Comments

Enviro Girl lives in Wisconsin, a place that is really, really cold half of the year.  While folks in the South spend money keeping cool, folks in the North spend money staying warm.  Whether heating a house/apartment/office building with propane, natural gas, or electricity, Enviro Girl has a few tips on saving energy and money in these cold months.

1.  Insulate your building.  By insulating attics and all walls, you’ll keep heat IN and cold OUT.  Insulation works on the same premise as igloos or ovens — thick walls retain the interior temperatures.

2.  Layer up.  Instead of turning up the thermostat when you’re cold, throw on a sweatshirt or sweater.  This will automatically make you feel 3-5 degrees warmer without burning up natural resources.

3.  Slippers.  You lose a fair percent of body heat through your feet.  Warm feet generally mean a warm body.  Keep socks or slippers on and you’ll further reduce the need to turn up your thermostat.

4.  Adjust your thermostat according to your building’s use.  If you’re sleeping, you can keep the heat down a couple of degrees.  If you’re gone all day or all weekend, turn down the heat to 65.  A programmable thermostat will pay for itself and is easy to install — a small computer chip will raise the temperatures before you return home and automatically lower them after you’re snuggled up in bed for the night — and raise them again before you’re up for the morning.

5.  Seal your drafts.  Cold air gets in through doors and windows.  A wide array of products are available to seal these parts of your house.  A lot of people block off doors during the winter, sealing them off entirely to traffic.   In Wisconsin, the energy company WE gives out free weatherizing kits that include plastic sheeting for windows and weather-stripping.

6.  If you’re building a new building, explore your heating options.  Enviro Girl installed radiant heating in her house.  It cost five times what a forced air system costs, but it pays for itself after 7 years of use.  The initial outlay for the water heater and tubing that runs through her floors means that her family can keep their thermostat lower than people living with furnaces and vented air.  They use less energy and stay more comfortable.  Radiant heat is often used in industrial buildings because it’s such an efficient way to heat space — instead of heating the hair, it heats the tubing which heats the floors which then rises to heat the air.  The heat stays longer and distributes more evenly than heat produced with a forced air system.  If you’re looking at a renovation and you’re redoing floors, Enviro Girl suggests you explore radiant heat as an option.

7.  Good window coverings will keep the cold at bay, insulating your windows from blasts of arctic air.  Whether you install honeycomb blinds or lined curtains, this investment will keep your house extra warm.  Enviro Girl installed honeycomb blinds over 3 large windows in her living room to keep out the sun’s heat in summer and the cold temps in winter — these blinds cost a fair amount, but they’ve made life much more comfortable.

8.  Storm doors add a layer of resistance to the cold air and make doors less drafty.  Enviro Girl had 2 installed and felt the difference immediately — one part of her house was always a little chilly but now feels like the rest of her house.

9.  Change your furnace filter.  A clean filter keeps your air cleaner and helps your furnace run more efficiently, using less energy.

10.  If you’re using auxiliary heat sources (fireplace, space heater, electric blanket), Enviro Girl urges caution.  Be safe and follow the manufacturer’s directions and guidelines.

Stay warm this winter and save money and save the environment — this is an equation that adds up!  Reader, what do you do to stay warm where you live?

Don’t forget about the Eco Women’s Holiday Giveaway, which ends TOMORROW.

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Posted in house stuff, in the office, living green on a budget

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The Crumple

Posted on December 18, 2009 by | 3 Comments

Crumpling up paper is a satisfying thing. Squeezing the paper tight in your fist, tossing it into the trash–who hasn’t done that? The menfolk at Enviro Girl’s house take particular joy from the crumple and toss–especially when it comes to disposing of gift wrap and mail.

A simple experiment will demonstrate exactly why the crumple contributes to the Trash Factor, taking up uneccessary room in our garbage bags and landfills.

Procure an empty shoe box and a stack of paper. (Enviro Girl used 8.5″ X 11″ multipurpose paper.)

Lay the paper into the box. How many pieces can you fit? (Enviro Girl laid in one hundred.)

Good. Now pull out the paper and begin crumpling it up and setting it in the box. Now how many pieces can you fit? (Enviro Girl squeezed in ten.)

By resisting the urge to crumple and folding gift wrap flat and layering it in your garbage bags, you’ll be able to dispose of more paper in less space. Your garbage collectors will thank you (especially the week after Christmas) and your landfills will thank you.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in 3 Rs, eco holidays, house stuff, in the office

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Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Posted on October 15, 2009 by | 12 Comments

ECOwomen comp w GLOBEIt’s Blog Action Day 2009 and this year’s issue is climate change.  Climate change affects each and every human, animal, and plant on Planet Earth.  And it’s not just about the temperature going up a few degrees; climate change could cause famine, flooding, and even war.

blogactionday

So that’s the scary part, now here’s the exciting part:  Every single person has the ability to make a difference.  It doesn’t matter who you are, YOU can help save Planet Earth.  Best of all, it’s EASY.  Just remember that simple things can lead to big changes.

The Eco Women are all about the easy things each person can do to help Planet Earth.  That’s what this blog is all about.

The Eco Women recently chatted with each other about Blog Action Day ’09 and what specific aspect of climate change they wanted to discuss today.  They were unanimous in their agreement that it’s the little things a person does every day that make a difference.  Every action you take can either positively or negatively impact the environment — Do you want to add more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere or do you want to reduce your carbon footprint?

Here are 10 easy actions for every person:

  1. Ditch the bottled water and get a reusable water bottle instead.  The Eco Women promise you that there’s nothing magical or special about bottled water except for the way it magically takes money from your wallet.  Plus there’s the environmental impact of creating and transporting and disposing of all those millions of plastic bottles.
  2. Skip the plastic grocery bags and take your reusable bags instead.  (Don’t have any?  Get yours here.)  If you do forget, opt for paper bags over plastic.  It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the 100 million plastic bags that Americans use annually — think about how that negatively affects Planet Earth.
  3. Recycle, recycle, recycle.  Duh.
  4. Park the car and walk, bike, or take public transportation at least one day a week or even just once or twice a month. Can’t park the car even for one day a week? Then drive smart and bundle your errands.  Park your car in one place, such as the bank, then walk the two blocks to the library.  You don’t need to move your car for each of your errands.
  5. Support local businesses.
  6. Eat seasonally and locally as much as is possible.  Join a CSA or shop at your local farmers’ market.  Best of all, grow some of your own food, even if it’s just a pot of herbs in your window.  Finally, skip the fast food, which is really McCrap and instead cook for yourself.
  7. Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
  8. Go meatless at least one day a week.  When you do eat meat and poultry, choose wisely.
  9. Use cloth napkins, even if it’s only once a day or a couple times a week.
  10. Ditch the paper towels and use washable rags and towels instead.

Any action you take to limit greenhouse gases is necessary and helpful.

Think this is all too much?  Then try just one or two new things this week.  Keep doing them over and over until they become a habit.  Then, choose something else from the list above and start doing it.  Once that’s part of your routine, try something new.  Keep adding new Eco Actions and pretty soon you’ll out-eco even the Eco Women!

Tell the Eco Women:  What have you started doing recently to help Planet Earth?

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Posted in in the office

It’s time to opt out

Posted on July 21, 2009 by | 2 Comments

RecyclaRecycla and her family moved last winter and no exaggeration, they had not even spent one night in the house when they started getting junk mail in their new mail box.  Now, five months later, Recycla has started receiving catalogs she has never even heard of.

Getting a mail box full of unwanted mail is bad enough, but think about the wasted paper and other resources. The average American receives more than 500 pieces of junk mail every year.  That’s about 100 million trees cut down to sell crapola that no one wants or needs.

What’s an Eco Warrior to do?

Opt out.

That’s right, opt out, eco baby.  It’s not required that you have a mail box full of catalogs and other nonsense.  So here are some websites you can go to and opt out of catalogs you don’t want:

  • DirectMail.com — This is a free service that is quick and effective.
  • MailStopper — This is a paid service, but they guarantee that they’ll stop 90% of your junk mail in 90 days or less.  They’ll even plant 5 trees on your behalf!
  • CatalogChoice — Target those pesky catalogs that are filling your recycling bin.
  • OptOutPrescreen.com — Getting too many credit card offers in the mail?  Then this is the service for you!
  • YellowPagesGoesGreen — Tired of getting phonebooks you don’t need?  Sign up here!

Recycla used DirectMail.com at her old house to cut back on junk mail and was happy with the results.  She has also signed up at her new address and is looking forward to no longer getting catalogs for Ye Olde Crappe in the mail every day.

Tell the Eco Women:  What’s the most unwanted catalog you’ve received in the mail recently?  What, if anything, have you done so far to cut back on the paper trail?

All information courtesy of Ideal Bite.

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Posted in 3 Rs, house stuff, in the office