The power of one...
24 April 2008
The power of one...
Going green doesn't mean growing dreadlocks, planting a herb garden on your window sill or flushing the toilet only once a day. It means becoming a smarty-pants in your work haven.
Every second time I visit my unit block's garbage room someone has carelessly dumped a non-paper item into the paper-recycling bin and vice versa. I sigh loudly, roll my eyes, frown and then put my hand in to the wrong bin, fish out the non-paper item and throw it disdainfully in to the correct bin. And I feel pretty good about myself; a greenie matryr. But there is much more I should be doing, even in my little home office built for one.
Let's start with the basics that you're probably (hopefully) already practicing.
Things like:
• turning off your computer, printer and your office light when you've finished for the day;
• rinsing out and using the same mug for your coffee or tea for the whole day instead of a new one each time
• not printing unless you absolutely have to or at least setting your printer to default to double-sided printing;
• using scrap paper for your musings, doodling, shopping list and phone messages.
• recycling your empty printer cartridges, both black and white and colour.
These basic things will become habit if they aren't already. But there are a few things you can delve deeper in to.
The ‘less' paper office...
Once upon a time, recycled paper for office use had the same reputation as recycled toilet paper - it damaged your mechanics with its rough nature. However, with the demand for greener solutions, paper companies have lifted their game and are
producing paper with quality as good as, if not better than, ‘virgin' paper.
The NSW government has produced a website called WRAPP (Waste Reduction and Purchasing Policy) that goes in to detail about what they are doing to reduce paper wastage, statistics, case studies and details of what you can do in your own office.
Check it out at http://www.wrapp.nsw.gov.au/whatis/index.shtml.
If you decide to go down the recycled paper path, see if there is a stationery supplier near your home that you can walk to. This will save car costs, release less pollution in to the atmosphere and get you exercising as well. Three birds, my
friends, one stone.
A fabulously fun website is the Australian Broadcast Commission's (ABC) mission to become greener. It gives you tips on how to get a ‘greenover' and you can also ask questions of ABC's Green Guru.
There is a ‘Busted' section which dobs in some of the ABCs resident hosts such as Margaret Pomeranz, who apparently has enough styrofoam cups in her office to "float a low-lying Pacific island." It is a really encouraging site that tries its
darndest to get you on the green train and, by george, you'd be hard pressed not to jump on. Check it out at http://www.abc.net.au/greenatwork/GreenYourWork/default.htm
So, just because you are a sole trader doesn't mean you can slink in to the "I'm just one person therefore I can't make a difference" corner. The world needs the power of multiple ‘ones' pulling their green socks up. And maybe I'll give recycled toilet paper one more go.
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