Office Right: Green Tips to Keep Your Company in the Clear

With today's growing trend in green, more businesses are re-examining their goals to focus on saving more of their earnings to simply to stay afloat. According to the most recent Small Business Index, 51 percent of today's small businesses have future plans to be more environmentally conscious. Being that today's volatile, roller-coaster financial climate continues on an undefined roll, our following article covers several green initiatives currently being implemented by business sectors on a global scale. These can help improve your office efficiency and save you money in the long run.

Energy: Working More, Using Less
In today's digital world, a computer and its peripheral equipment become the central piece work tool we all use. Everything revolves around its use and functioning. Optimizing your computer and other office equipment’s energy settings has become the prime and first concern for many owners today. Be sure to power completely off when shutting down for the day, instead of leaving the unit on stand-by. Your carbon footprint will decrease as will your monthly utility bills. If you use a power strip, or SHAVLIK power pack control for offices, the savings become even more obvious and can become more streamlined and easier to implement.

Go Digital and Don't Be a Paper Pusher
Going green in an office environment calls for cutting down on the use of paper, recycled or otherwise. As your business grows in its dependency on computers, the less paper you'll generally use. Keeping files on backup copies has become the norm and sending emails and PDFs to replace mailed paper correspondence and your postage savings increase as you turn more to digital business practices. Be prepared to pay slightly higher bills in electricity as you shift to a digitalized platform as well.
If you must use paper, try using recycled paper printed on both sides. When it comes time to replace your printers and photocopies, make sure they can do double-sided printing and that your settings are set at gray-scale settings to reduce the consumption of ink.

Greening the Commute
With American workers spending 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic, it behooves business owners to think in terms of a work-at-home or a small office home office platform for their business. Having gone through this cycle repeatedly over the years, instant messaging, video conferencing, smartphone use and other tools have taken this mindset to another level completely. Digital phone conferences, online tutorial classes, and reducing a work week schedule to four days a week at 10 hours a day saves your business about 20 percent in energy and travel time commuting. 

Today, more than 350 surveyed businesses and 44 million workers in this nation are going green. Perhaps it is time you consider it as well. These green tips can keep you in the clear and make sure you move in the right direction.