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.

Consumer electronics going green

All those neat high-tech electronic gadgets we use often are consuming energy even when we aren't using them. Most use low levels of power to retain settings, power indicator lights, maintain connectivity and stay ready to use instantly when we pick them up.

According to Jennifer Amann, consumer electronics expert for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy in Washington said "What most people don't know is that consumer electronics use considerable energy when in standby mode or even turned off. That downtime flow maintains internal clocks, indicator lights, preference settings, remote control responsiveness and other features and accounts for about 40 percent of electronics power consumption." A separate Ecos report due out in September will provide more information on this issue.

News and Observer
July 24, 2007
Frank Norton, Staff Writer

Electronics Going green
Makers of computers, MP3 players and other popular gadgets are heeding consumers' call to be eco-friendly. New devices use less energy, have fewer toxins and are easier to recycle. The companies' challenge? To lower prices.

Mark Pierce of Lenovo was jolted in August when Greenpeace ranked the Chinese-American PC maker dead last for green credentials out of 14 consumer electronics brands.

Pierce, Lenovo's environmental chief, was duty-bound to fix the situation or risk the company's fledgling U.S. image -- it had recently opened new world headquarters in Morrisville.

He began meeting regularly with Greenpeace officials to determine what Lenovo needed to do. The company committed to phase out hazardous chemicals from all products by 2009 and initiated a global hardware recycling program. It worked. Within a year Lenovo had soared to the top of Greenpeace's quarterly chart and has remained near the top since.

The intensity of that turnaround exemplifies the fervor of consumer-electronics makers to be green, or at least be considered so. For the first time, virtually all major brands including Dell, HP, Apple, Sony and Motorola are ramping up efforts to put cleaner, more efficient and more easily recyclable products in stores. Read more...

Build a green pc...

Your PC contributes to global warming and to a degree (no pun intended) helps run up your electric bill. An article from PC Magazine compares energy requirements of several home appliances including your PC and monitor.

One way to help address the issue is to buy a new PC that was manufactured with "green" concepts in mind. Another is to build your own green pc. How to do this is described in this article...

PC Magazine
January 31, 2007
By John Brandon

Global warming is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, which trap heat so it can't escape the atmosphere. Although cars, factories and power plants do most of the damage, the computer is at least partly to blame. A PC uses 200 to 400 watts, depending on its configuration and use. By comparison, a refrigerator uses about 725 watts, but a DVD player uses only 25 watts, and your TV is right around 100 watts. A high-performance gaming rig with a powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives and optical drives, a flash memory reader, and a 30-inch LCD might consume as much as 750 watts! Leave such a beast running constantly and you might see an extra $40 to $50 on your monthly electrical bill. Ouch.

Yet PC energy consumption is only part of the problem. The manufacturing process for computer parts also has an effect. The typical computer these days contains significant amounts of lead, which is used in soldering motherboards, processors, and other parts. Since the average lifespan of a PC is just three years—according to the EPA—the toxic effects of disposal are quite high. Read more...