Checklist for a Green Office

25 ways to help reduce your company’s environmental impact

By implementing one or more of the following “going green” suggestions, you can make a difference, save your company money and save the environment.

1. Turn off your equipment, computer, printers, scanners, calculator, etc. You can plug them into one power strip and turn it off at the end of the day.
2. Unplug charging devices (such as a cell phone charger when not in use)
3. Do not leave your mobile phone charging over night, charge during the day and when the battery is full, take it off the charger.
4. Use natural sun light when possible.
5. Turn off office lights at night.
6. Use washable coffee mugs.
7. Bring your own set of silverware.
8. Avoid printing in colour. Print drafts in black and white at the economy level.
9. Re-use boxes for when you have to ship items out.
10. Plan video or online meetings, instead of travelling.
11. Create recycle bins for:
    1. Cans
    2. Cardboard
    3. Glass
    4. Newspaper
    5. Paper
    6. Plastic
12. Recycle old equipment such as computers, cell phones, pagers and PDAs.
13. Print out only what you need. Only print essential emails.
14. Print or use both sides of paper.
15. Buy recycled paper.
16. Re-use supplies as much as possible. Take large envelopes and create interoffice envelopes or take used paper, and cut them into pieces for note pads.
17. Buy eco friendly supplies such as refillable pens, papers and refillable tape dispensers
18. If you are responsible for buying lighting, replace any incandescent light bulbs with Energy Star rated light bulbs or fluorescent bulbs.
19. Recycle toner and ink cartridges.
20. Buy remanufactured toners and printer cartridges.
21. Turn off your screen saver and use hibernate or sleep instead.
22. Install a water filter instead of using bottle water.
23. Ask to be removed from any snail mail distributions you do not read. If you get catalogues, asked to be removed from the list and look use the website.
24. If you have a personal printer, set the quality to draft or economy. If you need high quality, you can set it for each individual instance.
25. If feasible, make arrangements to work from home one day a week.