Simple ways to be green in home office

Whether working or relaxing there are many ways to be green in a home office. Recycling, replacing light bulbs, turning off electronics when not being used are a few steps you can take for starters.

Taking simple steps to use "green" ideas will reduce the cost of energy and supplies in your home office while you are reducing the impact on the environment. At first glance most of these are small items but the cumulative effect is worth the effort.

Better Homes and Gardens
November 12, 2007

How to Be "Green" in the Home Office

Published: 11/12/07, 2:36 PM EDT

Paper

Good: Print and copy on both sides of the paper. Better: Use tree-free paper and recycle. Best: Go as paperless as possible: send e-mails with attachments, write notes on a white board or in a computer program. Bonus: Shred waste material for packing.

Computers

Good: Use the energy saver settings on your computer and printer. Better: Turn off your computer at the end of the day. Best: Unplug your computer (and other electronics) to keep them from leeching "phantom" energy -- electricity they draw even while turned off.

Lighting

Good: Turn off all lights when you leave the room. Better: Replace your lightbulbs with compact fluorescents or LED lights. Best: Paint the walls of your office a light color to take advantage of natural light, preventing you from turning on the lights in the first place.

The Little Things

Good: Reuse paper clips or at least recycle them, otherwise all the extra metal goes straight to the landfill. Better: Don't use rubber bands anymore -- they're made from crude oil and have serious health effects when they're incinerated at the landfill. Best: Refill ink cartridges rather than buying new ones.

Is biodegradeable clothing in your future?

Could biodegradeable clothing be in your future and save jobs in the US? NC factories are now manufacturing scarves and socks from a corn-based fabric to help reduce impact on our environment.

Here's the report from WIS TV in Hickory, NC...

North Carolina company making biodegradable clothing
February 5, 2007
Bryce Mursch - WISTV, NBC

(Hickory, NC-NBC) Feb. 5, 2007 - Clothing made from corn could be saving hundreds of North Carolina textile jobs from heading overseas. Four North Carolina factories now produce socks and scarves from a corn-based fabric.

The machines humming at Catawba Valley Community College may be spinning the next hot seller in socks. That's where textile plants send newly developed fabric for testing as US companies try to figure out how to fend off foreign competition.

"It's hard to predict what the consumer is going to buy or what's going to be the hot thing next," said Dan Saint Louis. He runs the hosiery technology center in Hickory, a lab that recently perfected the latest invention in clothing fabric made from corn.

Jerry Collins with Twin City Knitting said, "It's a new yarn that we're introducing, but we're very pleased in the interest that people are showing it."

Four North Carolina companies now produce clothing made from ingeo, the patented cloth that looks and feels like cotton, but is actually a man made fiber derived from plant sugars. The fabric is biodegradable and has become a big seller in Japan.

"They are very very environmentally conscious. They don't have places for anything extra in their landfill," said Dan Saint Louis.

Scientists have also developed clothing made from bamboo and crab shells, a niche in manufacturing that companies say will save jobs and is creating room for expansion in a very competitive industry.

"It would be hard to compete with us," said Dan. "That's the name of the game for us."

You'll pay between eight and nine dollars for a pair of socks made from corn.

Several department stores including Nordstrom and REI now sell this and deals are in the works with other major department stores.