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How to Make Your Office Environmentally Friendly

Written by: John Gillett

Article Overview: This article offers six simple resource-saving opportunities that can make your office a brighter shade of green. Includes advice for lighting; office equipment; paper products; heating and cooling; water; and cars and parking.

How to Make Your Office Environmentally Friendly

There are many ways to define a "green" office. Unless you're working in a jungle and using sharp sticks to write in the dirt, your office can never be entirely environmentally-friendly.

Here are six simple resource-saving opportunities that can make your office a brighter shade of green.

Lighting: Lighting accounts for up to 30% of the energy used in an office. New lighting options can save 50-80% of lighting energy. Some of these options include switching to new, efficient compact fluorescent lamps wherever possible; installing occupancy sensors to turn lights out when no one is present in a room.

Office Equipment: According to the DOE, office equipment accounts for approximately 16% of an office's energy use. Simple ways to cut this use include: turn your computer off when you're not using it for more than 2 hours; install LCD monitors, which use much less energy than CRT monitors; printers, fax machines and copiers use energy even when they are not being used - they should be turned off in the evenings and when not in use.

Paper Products: Follow the environmental standard - reduce (create hard copies only when necessary); reuse (change printer settings to duplex; use 2-side copies whenever possible); and recycle (buy recycled paper and recycle paper on-site).

Heating and Cooling: Heating, cooling and ventilation accounts for 39% of energy use in an office. A few options to improving the energy consumed by heating, cooling and ventilation include setting back the thermostat a couple of degrees; using time-based controls to reduce heating and cooling when the building is unoccupied; if possible, use roof coatings, window films and vegetative shading to protect against extreme heat and cold; use insulation and weather stripping to block drafty areas.

Water: Water heating accounts for 9% of office energy use. Reduce water temperature to 120 degrees - if it was set at 140, this can save as much as 18% of energy use. Another water-saving opportunity is the use of low-flush toilets, which can save 50% over the old-fashioned toilets.

Cars and Parking: Businesses can take steps to encourage employees to drive less and instantly reduce the carbon footprint of an office. Commuting opportunities for offices include subsidized transit; carpool parking preferences; bike parking/showers/lockers; flexible work arrangements that allow employees to avoid heavy traffic and spend less time on the road.

For more information download a free copy of the "Green Office Guide" from the Portland, Oregon Office of Sustainable Development.

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Article Tags: brighter shade, change printer settings, compact fluorescent lamps, crt monitors, doe office, energy use, extreme heat, hard copies, lcd monitors, lighting accounts, lighting energy, lighting options, new lighting, occupancy sensors, office energy, recycled paper, roof coatings, water heating, water saving, window films



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