Small Steps to Green Your Business

I've heard many different reactions to the climate change buzz. Some people I've talked to don't see a point in changing their habits because the problem seems so insurmountable. Others have pointed out that some of the major corporations in key industries are expanding, let alone changing their practices to address climate change.

It's true. Some big evils are still out there. However, I don't personally see this as a reason to abandon positive changes towards greening your web practices, even small ones. Since when do you base your actions and integrity on what others are doing, anyway?

In Canada, 48 percent of the total private sector labour force is employed by small to medium sized businesses. Most of these have a website or use computers in some capacity. So, there's still significant potential for this sector to make a measurable impact.

There are many slices to the green pie. If you're looking for practical and manageable ways you can green your small business, grab your fork.

These days, computers can be configured to do things like putting the hard disks to sleep and dimming the display when not in use. You can find these under the Power Options menu in the Control Panel of a PC and under Energy Saver in your System Preferences on a Mac. Using power management features on your computer can save nearly half a ton of CO2 a year.

There is also a widget for the Mac OSX Dashboard called Deep Sleep that will put your computer to sleep, but keep your work space intact.

It's time to let go the old myth that it's better to leave a computer on all the time. There was a time, (about 15 years ago) that computers were best left on because of potential power switch glitches in the manufacturing. This is no longer true.

Computers and other electronics continue to use electricity, even when they are turned off. A computer uses up to 10 watts when it is turned off but still plugged in. So, unplug them when they're not in use and turn off power bars.

There is a range of office equipment available that have earned the ENERGY STAR. It's definitely not the end all and be all, but energy efficient equipment uses up to 60% less energy to perform the same tasks as other machines and automatically switch to a low-power mode when not in use.

From the Energy Star website:

Products that have earned the ENERGY STAR help you save energy and money without sacrificing performance. By using less energy, these products also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions—caused by the burning of fossil fuels at power plants—that contribute to global warming.

You may still have old equipment that is not in the budget to replace, but at least consider energy efficient equipment for any new purchases and when the time does come to replace the old machines.

Join the Fight Against Global Warming: At Work
Energy Star for Small Business

And when you replace your old equipment with more energy efficient products, recycle your old equipment properly.
Where to recycle computers in Canada.
Apple Product Recycling information
Dell Product Recycling information
HP Product Recycling information

Consider the life of one printed page: the energy it took to create the file on a computer and to store the file at a data center. The energy used by the printer to print the page, not to mention the energy it took to create the sheet of paper and of course, the tree it came from.

Now multiply that by a few million, (I couldn't find exact statistics for this).

There are other options to printing, especially now with Intelligent & Interactive PDFs that let you edit right in the document; and file transferring to mobile phones that allow you to transport documents and read on the go.

If you must print, try to print on both sides of the page or reuse paper that still has a blank side. And choose unbleached, uncolored, post-consumer recycled paper.

3 Steps to Go Green from Climate Savers Computing
8 Ways to Green Your Office
The Green IT Guide and Toolkit for Sustainable Business