How green can businesses go? Ideas...

Earth Day is nice but it should be reflected in changes we make year around. Now, give some thought to how YOU can make your business and lifestyle more green.

We all adopted computers to cut paper waste only to find that the paper mess actually increased for many of us. When it happened to me, I asked WHY? This is what I discovered.

Having things on computer, or on disks, or other media just isn't as convenient as having a touch and read quickly piece of paper when it's properly filed. I also found the waiting for loading, searching, and then trying to speed read (as I do naturally) and keeping the scrolling moving fast enough to stay ahead of me, just too frustrating. So much for paper messes? No.

The secret was to divide and conquer...some things seldom referenced are fine on disk but some things actually function for me better if in printed format.

Other ways to go green? Recycle...which we'd do more if we had the facilities and room to do more. Even so, many consumables can be recycled such as paper clips, pens (buy extra cartridges whenever a new pen is purchased), even computers can be turned into routers that function as firewalls or recycled in many other ways.

Use energy efficient appliances but forget using the mercury laden small fluroescent bulbs in place of incadescent ones. Mercury is a hazardous waste and pollution with it can cause horrendous consequences to humans and other animals, not to mention the environment.

Buy office chairs that have replaceable parts that frequently wear out (like cylinders for raising and lowering seats) and then take a few minutes to replace worn parts, rather than discard, the chair. Other office furnishings: if they're used daily consider investing in quality as it will pay for itself in the end. This is especially true of filing cabinets...pay for the best suspension system you can afford and it will pay for itself.

Network things like printers to eliminate duplicate purchases and space/support to cut down on waste.

Have a master turn off switch/unit for things that have a short/no warm up time in the morning. Most things left plugged in, even if turned off, use power so...switch them off and save!

Unclutter floors to make clean up quicker and cut down on power consumption. This also increases safety as there are fewer things to trip on.

Lots of ideas...and this is just a mere beginning. Now, how about sharing any ideas you've come up with to make your business etc more green?

Sandi Bowman

A MAJOR Atmospheric Science Group has NOW PROVEN that taking CORN (which has been able to feed BILLIONS of people on da earth)...and using it to power vehicles in the form of "Ethanol" (thereby removing a good source of FOOD of millions of humans)....has been PROVEN to put MORE, GREEN HOUSE GASES INTO DA ATMOSPHERE DEN REGLAR GAS-O-LENE!

So....another way to make money is by offering T-Shirts fer sale which say;

" SAVE DA PLANET! DON'T USE ETHANOL IN YER VEHICKLES"!

Don Alm....Environmentalist trying to "do my part"!

Don, I happen to agree with you on the ethanol thing but not for your stated reasons.

First, corn is NOT a great source of nutrients despite what people commonly believe. It is a good source of starch and fiber and not a whole lot else that you can't get better of elsewhere in the food chain.

What I object to is the conflict of interests that appears between wanting more fuel efficient vehicles and then forcing people (well, those of us in Oregon at least) to use gasoline that is contaminated with a percentage of ethanol. This results in fraud to the consumer because sometimes the facts about ethanol are virtually hidden from us, but more importantly, it results in LESS efficiency (lower MPG) in our vehicles and higher maintenace costs. So, we pay twice for the 'privilege' of being forced into using ethanol...and that doesn't count the energy costs to produce the ethanol, nor the effects on the environment. It's a bunch of hogwash.

Sandi Bowman

Last on our list is green financing. Last because this type of business will require some financing knowledge and course a lot of money to get going. This type of business lends money like a bank or private investor for the sole purpose of starting and running businesses that are green in nature. Capital could be significant for this business and it isn't for the faint of heart. But if you have a mind for finance and could put together a team of investors this could be the way to go.

Interesting idea but not feasible for most folks if it is done as we commonly see it in the USA. However, mini-loans, like they do for folks in third world countries, might be quite workable.

The original idea behind co-ops and so on was to pool resources and provide as needed in the rough spots for members. A version of that on a smaller scale than credit unions and banks might be an alternative that would work for small business folks. Keep it small, fairly local, and personal to be maximally efficient.

With the economy like it is, we all need to put our creative thinking caps on.

Sandi Bowman