We CAN Be Green

Green Quick Tips: Repackage Your Thinking On Packaging

Be Green: Less is more when it comes to packaging

As we start to approach the Holiday shopping season, it is important to think about the packaging that the gifts you buy come in. If there are comparable products that you are interested in but one comes in a big box full of Styrofoam, choose the one with the smaller packaging as it will make less of impact on the environment.

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Green Quick Tips: 5 Ways to Save Printer Ink

Be Green: 5 easy ways to save ink

1. Print Preview all documents before printing to ensure everything is laid out correctly
2. Set your printer to print black and white and use color for professional presentations only
3. Print in draft mode as it uses the least ink and also shortens the printing time
4. Use both black and color cartridges once a week to help prevent them from drying out
5. Print only what you really need to print

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Additional resources:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/133384/save_money_on_inkjet_printer_ink.html
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-printer-ink-and-toner-last-longer/

Green Quick Tip: STOP! Only Print IF Necessary

Go Green: A friendly green reminder to your email readers

A simple one line statement such as the one below can help remind your email recipients to only print an email if absolutely necessary.

"Please consider your environmental responsibility before printing this e-mail."

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Green Tips: Waste Reduction: Stop Junk Mail

One relatively easy way to reduce waste is to limit the amount of junk mail you receive.  Reducing junk mail will cut down on the amount of paper that you send to the landfill or recycling center.  Even if you recycle paper, resources are still used in the transportation and recycling processes.  In addition, if more people chose not to receive junk mail, the companies producing the junk mail will eventually produce less of it, which will save natural resources and reduce CO2 emissions.

Here are some resources to help limit the amount of junk mail you receive:

• Register online with the Mail Preference Service. It costs $1.00, but should significantly reduce the amount of junk mail you receive.
• Have your address removed from the Valpak and Advo mailing lists from their websites.
• To keep from getting credit card offers, you can call 888-5-OPTOUT (888-567-8688).  You will be connected to a recorded message (24 hrs a day) that will prompt you for your full name, address, telephone number and SSN. Your SSN is requested to verify your request.  Choose option 3 to have your name removed permanently, or choose option 1 to have your name removed for just two years.
• For catalogs and other mailings from a specific source, you can call the company’s 800 number and ask to be removed from the mailing list.  If it is somewhere you shop often, or somewhere you frequent, you can ask to receive e-mails instead of catalogs, so you can still stay informed.  Also, you can go to a free service called Catalog Choice and choose which catalogs you would like to stop receiving. 

Do you have any other resources that you use to help limit the amount of junk mail you receive?

Green Tips: Paper Conservation: Online Payments

Many institutions including banks and utilities have used the online medium to make life easier for their customers. They offer them the options of managing their accounts and paying bills online. This not only saves the customer time and effort but, more importantly, there is absolutely no need now to write or use paper checks or to keep any paper record of that transaction. By reducing the amount of paperwork both at the customer's end and at the end of the institution, it will help slow down deforestation and global warming.

 

It is not difficult to sign up to manage your accounts online. In fact, many of these institutions now offer you rewards for using these online options.

Green Tips: Paper Conservation: Double Sided Printing

One way that we all can save paper is to print double-sided.  This applies to both printing and copying.“If just one in four office workers made all of their copies double-sided, the annual savings would equal 130 billion sheets of paper – a stack thicker than the diameter of the earth.”  The Green Book - Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen  

 

Video Courtesy of KTechTalk

We all can control how we print out our documents on the printer from our work station.  There are printing options whereby we can print two pages per sheet of paper and/or double sided (duplex).  Therefore, below please find directions on how to do this from your work station: 

 

Click on Start icon on bottom of screen 

Click on Printers and Faxes and a new window will open up 

Right click on your printer that you use as default 

Click on Properties and a new window will open up 

Click on Printing Preferences at the bottom of the screen and a  new window will open up 

Double Click on either a.  Duplex (allows one to print on both sides of paper) or b.  Paper Saving 1 (allows one to print two pages on one side) a new widow will then open up 

If you double clicked on Duplex, select the Duplex/Booklet box and click on Save on the bottom of the screen 

If you double clicked on Paper Saving 1, the Layout/Poster box should be automatically checked, if not please check and click on Save on the bottom of the screen 

Click Ok on the bottom of the screen to close the window 

Click Ok on the bottom of the screen to close the window 

Note that not everyone will have a printer that allows for this (for example desk top printers) but most newer printers will allow for options of printing out documents double sided.