If you’re like most modern workers, you’re spending approximately one-third of your adult life either at the office or getting there. Here are a few professional acts of green that can have a significant impact on the health of the planet and your community.
 

1. Green Your Commute Sitting in traffic to or from your office is more than just a time-consuming annoyance, it’s a significant contributor to greenhouse gas levels. The average American spends 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic, which adds up to 3.7 billion hours and 23 billion gallons of gasoline burned in traffic each year. By using public transit to get to and from the office, you can save a whopping 4,800 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

If you have to drive, consider purchasing a hybrid or low-emission vehicle. But even if that isn’t a viable option, use the car you own right now and consider carpooling. Most major American cities support non-profit “Rideshare” organizations (check your city’s website to see if there’s one in your area) that aim to take the guesswork out of finding a carpool buddy. If no such service is available in your area, you can organize an intra-office carpool of your own. E-mail lists are a good way to reach everyone in your office who might be interested.

If you’re the boss, consider offering a bonus to bike and carpool commuters as extra incentive. And if you’re an employee, ask the powers that be to consider implementing such an incentive.

The best way to green your commute, however, is avoid commuting.

According to a recent study, telecommuting just one day each week saves the equivalent of up to 12 hours of an average household’s electricity use, 1.4 gallons of gasoline and reduces CO2 emissions by 17 to 23 kilograms per day.

If you’re an employee, approach your boss about the option to telecommute. If you’re the boss, look into setting up a virtual private network, which allows your employees to access your company’s network securely and safely from almost any location.

3. Meet Virtually Your commute isn’t the only travel you can eliminate. On average, business travel accounts for 15 to 20 percent of a company’s total emissions, and for services companies the figure can reach as high as 80 percent. But new virtual conferencing technology, like a Cisco TelePresence solution, makes it possible to hold face-to-face meetings with customers, partners, and collaborators anywhere in the world, without ever having to leave your office.

For small or medium-sized businesses, affordable desktop virtual meeting software, like WebEx, lets you host or attend meetings right from your desktop. You can share documents, Flash, and PowerPoint presentations instantly, digitally, and securely.

In a typical office, nearly one-fifth of all electricity consumed goes toward lighting—more than for any other end use. And much of that lighting is achieved through the use of traditional incandescent bulbs—one of the least energy efficient lighting options around.

Making it a practice to turn off lights when they aren’t needed—during daylight hours or when an area is unoccupied—will lower your energy bill and reduce your carbon footprint, but an investment in new lighting technology will produce even greater rewards.

Replacing the standard bulbs in your office with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) can reduce your energy expenditure on lighting by as much as 75 percent per bulb, according to the EPA.

And though they’re a little more expensive, CFLs will outlast traditional incandescent bulbs by a factor of ten.

One thing to note, though: CFLs contain mercury and require special handling in disposal. Some retailers offer free take-back programs in which they provide recycling bins in their stores for spent CFL disposal. Check into recycling programs for CFLs in your local area, or visit www.lamprecycle.org for regulation and recycling information by state.

Lighting isn’t the only power consumer today’s companies contend with. The ubiquitous computers and their peripherals consume a surprising amount of energy.

To conserve, consider replacing the desktop computers in your office with laptops, which are far more energy efficient and can consume up to 80 percent less energy than equivalent desktops.

“Energy Star” certified computers have to meet stringent energy efficiency standards to qualify. Also, remember to turn off, or even unplug, all equipment on weekends and holidays.

Glass, plastic, paper—if you’re like most professionals, your office is awash in all three. In fact, commercial enterprises are responsible for about 40 percent of total municipal waste. If you’re not already recycling, call your local government and find out how to start a recycling program at work. If no program is available, find out where your local recycling centers are and have volunteers take turns making a “recycle run.” In many cases, recycling centers will buy your materials from you, and while you probably won’t earn enough to affect the bottom line, you can make a nice contribution to the petty cash fund.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a great online resource for best practices, including how to motivate and educate employees on the importance of recycling, green procurement guidelines, and more.

Twenty years ago, they were lauded as the lightweight alternative to glass and a less expensive packaging method than aluminum, but these days, plastic bottles are a major environmental scourge.

On average, Americans drink 167 bottles of water each year, and it’s become routine for larger companies to offer free bottled water to both visitors and employees. All together, that adds up to an enormous amount of plastic going into the waste stream:

According to Earth911.org, eight out of 10 plastic water bottles end up in a landfill, where they’ll take more than 1,000 years to begin to decompose.

And if that weren’t alarming enough, 1.5 million barrels of oil are required to manufacture a year’s supply of bottled water. That’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.

But the good news is, companies and employees across the globe are taking the “Think Outside the Bottle” pledge to stop purchasing bottled water.

And even if you’re the only one in your office to break the bottled water habit, you’ll be saving money as well as the environment: A durable, reusable water bottle like the Sigg Directions requires an investment of about $25, but if you’re like the average consumer, you’ll save more than $2000 over the lifetime of the bottle.

The days of the printed inter-office memo may be long gone, but many workers are too quick to hit the “print” button on electronic communications.

Adding a standard message to the bottom of all company email can encourage employees to consider whether it’s really necessary to print that document or attachment and significantly reduce the consumption of paper.

And when you do have to print, make sure your printer is set to the “double-sided” print option, and use recycled paper.

Consider swapping out your traditional ink cartridges with soy-based ink products, an environmentally friendly, healthy, and safe approach to printing that takes requires only a small amount of energy to produce. In addition, soy-based inks contain significantly lower levels of and low levels of VOCs, (volatile organic compounds) than their chemical counterparts, which helps to reduce air pollution by minimizing toxic emissions.

If you haven’t already done so, register with One Million Acts of Green and log your “acts of green” here. Then encourage your colleagues to do the same.

Being green can be fun, too. Challenge your coworkers and see who can rack up the most acts of green, or offset the most carbon. Then, spread the word around your company. Challenge other departments or branches of your business.

Add One Million Acts of Green to your email signature, or join the Facebook group, as a subtle encouragement to friends and family to do their part as well.

A Lot or a Little — It All Adds Up When it comes to protecting the environment, bringing your eco-consciousness to work with you can make a big difference. Not only will you be doing your part to act green,” you’ll be inspiring your coworkers to do the same. Have more tips? We’d love to hear about them. Submit your idea.

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