The Green Office

Tips and ideas to bring sustainable practices and cost savings to your workplace (and personal life) for small, medium and large size businesses!

By Daniel Carrollwww.linkedin.com/in/DanielSCarroll

for free distribution and sharing

Outline

1. Statistics

2. Printing and Paper Output Reduction

3. Document Distribution and Communication Technology

4. Office Devices and Energy Consumption

5. Food Services and Vehicles

6. General Facilities

7. Savings in sustainability

8. Savings calculation: printing and paper

9. Savings calculations: electricity and office devices

10. Electricity costs on items left on overnight

11. Resources

12. Green your everyday life—checklist

Interesting Statistics The U.S. Department of Energy says that $4 billion a year in electricity bills is wasted because of vampire power sucking

A midsized company with 1,000 employees and $100 million in revenue will produce 30 million pages of paper a year, which equates to cutting down 1,369 trees and producing approximately 300,000 pounds of CO2 every year.1

Large companies can use an estimated 400 billion pages of printer paper a year; that’s 18,253,333 trees converted to paper generating four billion pounds of carbon every year for a single company on a single item—paper. 1

  Due to the explosion of information, we use two times more paper today than we did in 1980, on average.

1

1Source: OpenText, “The Top Three Right Ways to Go Green: Save the environment and save”. 2009. www.aiim.org/green-ecm

1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets. 1 ream (500 sheets) uses 6% of a tree Source: http://conservatree.org/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml

It takes 2,000 times more energy to produce a bottle of water than it does to produce tap water.3

69% of bottled water containers end up in the trash and not in a recycling container.4

3 Gleick, P.H, Cooley, H.S, “Energy Implications of Bottled Water.” February 19, 2009, The Pacific Institute. Pg, 6.4 IBWA, “IBWA Rebuts Misleading and Factually Incorrect Video about Bottled Water”. Alexandria VA, March 22, 2010

Printing and Paper Output Reduction

Print to PDF instead of Paper: you can print any electronic document, such as Word docs, spreadsheets, and web pages, to a PDF file that can be saved on a computer and then distributed electronically

Check out CutePDF (some web browsers have this feature built in)

Use Print Preview! Adjust document formatting, such as font size, to fit more on a single page

Use email rules allows you to automatically route emails into a folder you specify in your mailbox. This will alleviate the need to print emails to hardcopy.

Keep electronic documents electronic: upwards of 90% of documents that are “born” digitally stay digital (just don’t print!)

Rules based printing—send larger jobs to the most efficient and cost effective printer (general rule of thumb: the large the printer, the less it costs per page to print)

Enforce a mandatory black & white and duplexing/double-sided printing for “non essential” documents (or 2-up/4-up per page)

Always buy Energy Star™ Certified equipment

Purchase “green office products”: paper, stationary, toner

Document Distribution and Communication Technology

Use a dual monitory set up: most people reduce their amount of printing and increase productivity Digitize and automate business forms with type fields (e.g. PDF files)

Set up an intranet to host information you need to share, and create simple web forms Check out Google Sites

Make use of Shared Network Drives (Network Attached Storage) or Document/Content Management Systems to house document electronically

Check out: http://www.auditmypc.com/free-document-management-software.asp

Use FTP services transfer larger electronic files to eliminate the need to wastefully create CDs or DVDs

Check out YouSendIt, Dropbox, Box.net

Make use of web conferencing services to reduce travel time Checkout: BigMarker, AnyMeeting, Vyew

Bottom line: share information electronically (forward email attachments, links to websites, etc.)

Office Devices and Energy Consumption

“Power down” all devices when not in use (mail equipment, printers, copiers, multifunction devices)

Turn off all computers overnight (or place in sleep or hibernate mode)

Implement energy conservation mode on all available equipment unplugging equipment when not in use is ideal

Remove old equipment/units that are plugged in Check it out: AC power adapters and cords still use energy when plugged in, even if the device

they power is not turned on ($$$ savings is covered in later slides)

Turn off all lights overnight in any facility where this can be permitted (including conference rooms)

Avoid using incandescent bulbs, commonly found in desk lamps, and rely more on compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), commonly used in office buildings

Check it out: CFLs use 3-4 times less power than incandescent lamps of equivalent brightness – source: U.S. Department of Energy, http://www.eere.energy.gov/basics/buildings/lighting.html)

Food Services

Encourage the use of washable utensils, plates, etc. over single use items Make sure all clean plastic and Styrofoam, plates, cups, and utensils are recycled, as well as aluminum cans

Rinse out glass and plastic containers with water prior to placing them in the recycling stream

Risen off any food/grease stains from plastic plates prior to placing them in the recycling stream

Food byproducts that are excessively stained or soaked in grease (e.g. pizza box) should not be recycled

Vehicles

Refrain from idling vehicles for too long. Generally, less gas is wasted when the engine is turned off and on again.

Ensure scheduled maintenance checks are conducted regularly for peak performance (consistent oil changes, keeping tires to correct pressure inflation)

General Facilities

Keep exterior doors and loading dock gates closed to prevent large amounts of heat or A/C from escaping and to keep the temperature stable

Close window blinds to reduce the temperature in offices from direct sunlight (reverse in winter)

Display Green Office Signs to direct end users, such as labeling recycling bin locations

Recycle all materials correctly, especially cardboard and plastics

Recycle or shred all printed pages (ensure the destruction company recycles shredded paper – most do)

Reuse “good conditioned” materials, such as paper boxes, pallets and shipping/packing materials

Place recycling bins through your facility in clearly visible areas, especially by printers

Savings in sustainability

Two often over looked areas that provide easy and measureable savings

Printing

Energy waste

Savings calculation: printing and paper

Item

Conservative Estimates

$ Low – high / median

1 LaserJet – toner print cost per page (B&W) $0.017 - 0.03 / 0.0235

2 LaserJet – avg. toner cartridge (yields 600-1K pages4) $19.99 – 38.99 / 29.49

3 Paper – cost per page (letter size) $0.006 – 0.0116 / 0.0088

Copy Machine/MFP – print cost per page (B&W) $0.013 - 0.021 / .0017

  total cost per page printed =

1 toner print cost per page + 3 paper cost per page + (2 new cartridge ÷ 4avg. yield per cartridge)

$0.0235 toner cost + $0.0088 paper cost + ($29.49 toner ÷ 800 pages) =

0.0235 + 0.0088 + 0.0369 = $0.0692

Savings calculations: electricity and office devices

Item

United States AveragesSeptember 2011

Electricity per kWh $0.135

Utility (piped) gas per therm 1.063

Gasoline per gallon 3.664

wattage   x   hours used  ÷  1000  x  price per kWh  =   cost of electricity

Examples on next slide

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/ro3/apphl.htm

Electricity costs on items left on overnight

wattage   x   hours used  ÷  1000  x  price per kWh  = cost of electricity1 night = 14 hours (est.) US kWh Average = $0.0135

Lighting30 - CFL Blubs x 25 watts x 14 hours ÷

1000x $0.135/kWh = $1.42/night

$517.39/year2 - incandescent bulbs x 100 watts x 14 hours ÷

1000x $0.135/kWh = $0.38/night

$137.97/year

Computers

Desktop PC X 73 watts X 14 hours ÷ 1000

x $0.135/kWh = $0.14/night$51.10/year

Copiers/MFPs

55-60 page per minute model

X 2000Watts (standby)

X 14 hours ÷ 1000

x $0.135/kWh = $3.78/night$1,379.70/year

LserJet Printers

30 page per min. model X 28.5 watts (standby)

X 14 hours ÷ 1000

x $0.135/kWh = $0.05/night$19.66/year

50+ page per min. model

X 203 watts(standby)

X 14 hours ÷ 1000

x $0.135/kWh = $0.38/night$140.04/year

Resources

www.earth911.com – locate recycling centers for different types of materials

Information on average energy usage of household items:http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html Information about recycling batteries:www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/battery.htm www.earth911.com/recycling/hazardous/single-use-batteries/ Information about recycling light bulbs:http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/wastetypes/universal/lamps/ (mercury-containing)http://earth911.com/recycling/household/light-bulbs/tips-on-recycling-light-bulbs/ Information about donating or recycling computers:http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm 11 Step Guide to Develop a Waste Management Program for Business:http://www.rethinkrecycling.com/businesses/reduce-reuse-recycle/11-step-guide U.S. Department of Energy – Office Checklist and Sustainability Tips: www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/etipsoffice.pdfwww.energysavers.gov/your_workplace/

Greening your everyday life – check list

Unplug before you leave: Green your life:

WiFi router

Coffee maker

TV and cable boxes not

turned fully off

Game console(s)

Cell phones chargers

Lights and fans

AC units

Space heaters

Unused AC adaptors left

plugged in

Take public transit, or other

modes of non-CO2 producing

transit (bike, walk)

Keep car tires fully inflated

and oil changed at

recommended intervals

Participate in e-billing and

process electronic payments

online (PDF the receipt)

Use a water filtration system or a filtered water bottle instead of buying bottled water

Average lifespan of 1 Tap Water Filter =

12.5 x 1 case of 24 bottles

= 300 bottles