Other Ways to be Green
Skip printing e-mails
ThinkBeforePrinting.org estimates over 50% of pages printed are never looked at. Consider how many times an almost completely blank "page 2 of 2" comes out of your printer when printing e-mails and documents.
SKIP grabbing an extra napkin or paper towel
During an average year, an American uses approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.
Source: 50WaysToHelp.com
SKIP using disposable cups
The average American office worker uses about 500 disposable cups every year.
Source: Earth911.com
Turn off lights when not in use
According to LivingEfficiently.org, lighting accounts for 30% of all electricity used in a typical school. After regular business hours, turn off all lights that aren’t needed for security.
Print double-sided
American businesses throw away 21 million tons of paper every year, equal to 175 pounds per office worker. For a quick and easy way to reduce this in half, set your printer's default option to print double-sided (duplex printing).
Source: 50WaysToHelp.com
Recycle
Recycled glass reduces air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%. There are 63 million newspapers printed each day, of which 69% will be thrown away. Recycling just the Sunday paper could save more than half a million trees every week.
Source: West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Buy recycled products
If every U.S. household replaced just one roll of 1,000-sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100 percent recycled tissue, it could save 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space and 155 million gallons of water.
Source: HawaiiZeroWaste.org.
Turn off the water while brushing your teeth
A single person can conserve up to five gallons of water per day by turning off the water while brushing their teeth. Savings in the U.S. alone could add up to 1.5 billion gallons per day – more water than folks use in the Big Apple.
Source: West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Sign up for direct deposit and online pay advances
Approximately $40,000 per year in personnel time and supplies could be saved if all employees used direct deposit and online pay advices.