Green office

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What it's all about

I want to try and work with my work mates to try and limit the environmental impact of what we do here everyday

What's needed to make it a reality

some idea of w here to find out what we can do, whats the most effective thing we can do, like whats the best paper to get for the printer, if we get a new printer what type should we get

Comments

Staff reply 04 Dec 07 11:28, Edited on 06 Dec 07 11:28, by Dalaigh Have you got an existing printer? And are you planning to buy a new one?

If so, maybe you could set one up purely for scrap paper and the other for pristine stuff that needs to impress. You'll find most of what you print is not that important.

Also check the owners manual of the printer to see if you can change the default settings to something like draft? Straight out of the box, printer manufacturers like to set the defaults for more than everyday use - it allows them to sell more ink cartridges and laser toner (this is where they make their profits)
06 Dec 07 09:46, by Laura Hiya!

This is something we have done at my office (Volunteer Centre). We have a volunteer group of employees that meet once a month at lunchtimes, and discusses environmental issues. We have implimented paper recycling and made a new Environmental Policy. The best help we have received has been from Every Action Counts. They're great, check them out - www.everyactioncounts.org.uk

If you sign up they send you some great games and ideas to focus your attention on.
If i can help in any other way, please let us know,
Laura
10 Dec 07 14:25, by Michael I agree with both of the above comments. We have set our printer up to print double-sided as the default, plus we have a policy of recycling paper - both in terms of sending it to be recycled, but also reusing redundant one-sided documents. Once you've started implementing schemes like that in the office it helps people to consider the amount they *do* print, and once you've got into that mindset you might find that you're printing less anyway.