Natural and Sustainable

If you have brought up green changes within your office and also to your co-workers or bosses and got a snubbed look or a no way. There could be other reasons to this other than them thinking they are too difficult to change or too pricey to afford. Here is a great way to get your brush offs to be heard.

If you are attempting to convince your boss you may want to show how these changes are actually cost-saving to the company and very simple to change. Some great examples of this would be refilling the ink cartridges instead of just replacing them altogether. It can save about 50 percent than it would to be just to replace them.

Simple things like shutting down computers at night and printers and fax machines can save your company huge amounts of wasted costs as well. Try to convey this to your boss and other coworkers and let them know the more money the company saves the more money they will possibly receive in return.

Convey to coworkers how important it is for them to bring in their own reusable cups instead of relying on the company’s paper or Styrofoam cups. This can save the company huge cost on their coworkers alone. These ideas may prompt other changes as well. So get the ball rolling.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: If you have in your head the guilt from the carbon mess you are creating and fret about why you didn’t take the bus instead of walk or bike, then it may be time for you to visit a local eco-psychologist. These psychologists are sprouting up everywhere now days and if you feel the guilt to be overwhelming, schedule an appointment to visit one today.

• Aveda: This company purchases organic ingredients and practices to reduce waste and extend the life cycle of the packaging.

• Benjamin Moore: This company came up with the low-VOC line that helps cut waste and require less waste than normal conventional paints.

• Clif Bar: They offset emission and recycle all of their office paper. They have even come up with the “2 Mile Challenge” to get the visitors to their website to ride their bikes more.

• Fairmont Hotels & Resorts: They have retrofitted more than 50 venues with energy-efficient bulbs and low-water toilets.

• The Home Depot: They sell FSC wood than any other retailer in the U.S. They also help customers buy better environmentally sound products.

• Method: They product biodegradable, chemical-free cleaning agents to help offset CO2 emissions.

• Nike: They are restricting PVCs and other tonics in their footwear and incorporating more organic cotton and ever recycling their old shoes into basketball courts and tracks around the world.

• Origins: They have gone nontoxic, and offer a great organic line that even prints all the material on recycled paper with soy-based inks and the stores in the United States are wind powered.

• Shaw: This carpet-maker takes your old carpet and makes it into new carpet for your home.

• Timberland: Their nutritional label breaks down the company’s impact on the environment.

• Virgin: The owner Sir Richard Branson has committed $3 billion in the fight against global warming in hopes they will be reinvested into renewable energy.

• Wal-Mart: They are the biggest purchaser of organic cotton already and in addition they are reducing the solid waste within the company by 25%.

• Whole Foods: They offer the best selection of organic and locally grown foods choices and offer discounts to customers that bring in their own shopping bags.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Glossary of what some “green” words mean:
1. Carbon Credit: The process of reducing carbon emissions by “offsetting”. An example is planting a tree to make up for a flight you took that week or that year even.

3. Green: Having a positive environmental objective.

Your business must be energy efficient to even be the slightest bit green in any way. Here are five ways to get the greener business we all want.

1. Install and use timers on certain equipment throughout your company’s business. You don’t want to be running the copy machine all the time; you just want it on when copies are made.

2. Use some energy monitors or clocks to show certain energy usage through your business building.

3. Use every-efficient surge protectors. You can even control some of the latest models with remote shut off switches as well.

4. Use some dimming switches on certain lights and also install skylights in areas not needed as much light. You don’t want to be lighting an area where not a lot of people travel through during the day. A waiting room would be a great place for skylights as well.

5. Use compact fluorescents all through your company for the lighting. Tube lighting should be replaced with newer tubes as well.

6. Install programmable thermostats to come on only when your business is open. If you are a 24 hour business, program the thermostat to certain hot or cold parks of the evening and throughout the night.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Keeping certain trash picked up throughout your yard and the street in front of you house will and can prevent the trash from ending up in the water ways and possible the drinking water supply. It can even help wildlife from becoming tangled in trash or even digesting something they shouldn’t. Every little bit helps the environment as well. Certain trash containers and others do not ever biodegrade.