Home Office Answers

If you have questions about your water bottle safety please watch this Today Show video.

If you have additional resources or information about plastic safety please post in the comments section.

  Okay, I admit it I was “hooked” on plastic bottled water.  I bought into the advertising insinuations that bottled water is tastier and healthier.  Plus, it just seemed cooler to drink water from the mountain stream or some other auspicious place. 

It’s ironic that the millions of plastic bottles used for water are actually destroying the very mountain stream they claim to use.

Did you know making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil in 2006, enough fuel for more than 1 million United States cars for a year, and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide?

Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles, and in the United States, less than 1 out of 5 of these bottles are recycled.

The rest find their way into landfills and just sit there for decades to come.

Why should we waste precious oil and energy and create pollution for a plastic bottle?

Besides wasting our precious resources bottled water is plain expensive.

Do you know how much cold cash do you spend on bottled water? If you drink eight glasses a day from plastic bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 dollars a year! Bottled water can cost as much as $10 per gallon compared to less than a penny per gallon for tap water.

I can think of a lot better ways to spend $1400.00 than drinking plastic bottled water, how about you?

An easy way to go green at home or at the office, give up the plastic bottled water habit. Save your cash and the environment, use a safe reusable water bottle (I recommend SIGG, or something similar) or the glass in your kitchen cupboard.

For Earth Day here’s an easy to implement tip to get you started saving paper.
Print this page for your receipt.

I think those are the infamous words I read every time I make an on-line purchase.

This used to be my routine, print the receipt page, lay it on my desk, find the receipt about 3 weeks later, while looking for a completely different paper and put it in a file in my desk drawer in case I need it later.

I can honestly say I don’t think I have EVER needed that paper for anything.

Since committing to making my home office green I have started looking for ways NOT to print things.  A receipt from an on-line purchase has turned out to be one the easier things to not print for me. 

Once you have a system in place, saving your on-line receipts in your computer is easy.

Step 1

Find a PDF Printer you like.

Let me explain.

The word printer here is likely to cause confusion.  If you are like me, when you see the word printer you automatically think printing on paper; however when you see “print to PDF” (Portable Document Format) there is no paper or ink involved. 
Printing to PDF is geek speak for saving your document in a PDF format.  I know that sounds complicated, but trust me it is not.  
The best way to understand it is to try it.

Find a PDF Printer you like.

There are plenty of free ones available.

I use Green Print, a couple other popular ones are CutePDF and DoPDF. 

Follow the download and install instructions on the site you have chosen.  Once the software is installed you are ready to start digitally saving your receipts.

When the “print this receipt” box appears, select print like you have done in the past.  When this box pops up select your PDF Printer.

Now click ok. 

You should set up a digital filing system that works best for you and save your receipt in a folder that you will be able to locate easily should you ever need it.

Give this system a try and let me know what you think.

  Earth Day is tomorrow and Yahoo Green has added a FUN contest with prizes to help us get more involved.They are hiding Earth Day Treasure Hunt in ReUse/Recycle Groups everywhere.

If you are not familiar with reuse groups, there are several around the world.

I belong to Freecycle.org and I think most other reuse group’s work in a similar fashion.  If you have something you don’t want anymore you post by email to the group about your item, list how someone can contact you to pick the item up.  Freecycle.org is free to be a member and you can not charge for anything you are listing to give away.  It also works in reverse.  If you need an item you can post what you are in need of and wait to see if someone has the item sitting around looking for a new home.

Freecycle groups are divided by areas such as the county or city you live in.  Having a local group is the key to success. There are no shipping charges and quick and easy pick up’s can be made.

From Yahoo Green Web Page:

To look for an Earth Day treasure:

1. Sign up with the reuse group nearest you, and keep your eyes peeled! At some point between April 20 and May 4, 2008, you may see a message from a member identified as Yahoo! offering an Earth Day treasure.
2. Reply to the message, and include this info in your email: your first and last name, your email address, and your Yahoo! ID. Just send one email. Sending multiple emails can get you disqualified.
3. If your email is the first one received that qualifies, you’ll get the goods.

Yahoo! might not tell the group about the winner because entries have to be verified. Limit is one prize per person. Prize winners will be notified no later than May 20, 2008.

Please read the complete rules for details.

Hurry on over to Yahoo Green for details and links to your reuse group and good luck treasure hunting.

   Bring your own bag

Whole Foods Markets will stop using disposable plastic grocery bags on Earth Day, April 22, 2008.

I think that is a step in the right direction and hope other large companies take a similar action soon.  Banning plastic bags is undoubtedly good for the environment. 

Do you have your reusable bag with you when you need it?

If the paper bag option is easily available I don’t think most people will make the effort to remember their bag.

I do not see anything wrong with ONLY using cardboard boxes that stock came to the store in for shoppers who have forgotten their bags.

I hope Whole Foods and others will ad BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) campaigns to all their marketing efforts.

Hint to Whole Foods- A million dollar prize seems to motivate us to eat a lot of fast food burgers, I wonder if it wouldn’t do the same for the use of reusable bags.

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 When do you remember your reusable shopping bag?  I think about mine just about the time the clerk says paper or plastic?  UGH!  I think the only answer is to have at least a couple of bags in my purse, but until now I hadn’t seen the right bag.  I think I finally found the reusable bag that will work for me.

What I like about the flip & tumble bag

• 1) It looks nice. Let’s face it I want to be green friendly, not dirt ugly
• 2) It fits in my purse. A stretchy pouch makes it a cinch to go from a full size bag to small ball in seconds flat. Stash one in your messenger bag or purse, ready to go, 24-7.
• 3) It has a nice shoulder strap making it easy to carry when it’s full.

Never be without your reusable shopping bag again, order your flip & tumble bags today.

   Do paper phone books keep appearing at your door step uninvited?    I used to take mine right from the door step to the recycling bin mumbling to myself all the way.  Now there is a better way.  If you don’t want your “fingers to do the walking” sign up for this eco-friendly service and STOP receiving paper phone books. 

According to Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org over 500 Million phone directories are printed each year.

The resources needed to produce these books is tremendous

19 million trees need to be harvested 

1.6 billion pounds of paper are wasted

7.2 million barrels of oil are misspent in their processing (not including the wasted gas used for their delivery to your doorstep)

268,000 cubic yards of landfill are taken up

3.2 billion kilowatts of energy are squandered

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org is an organization working to educate consumers and promote the green movement to eliminate the unsolicited delivery of Yellow and White Pages books. This site is aimed at starting a national movement to solicit the White/Yellow Pages industry to proactively stop the delivery of books or to begin moving legislation to mandate the stoppage of this activity. This movement should be similar to the National No-Call Registry that have stopped and/or decreased the number of unwanted solicitations telephone calls to consumers.

Make your home office eco-friendly green, save some trees and stop receiving unsolicited phone directories.

After I reviewed the staggering impact my paper bills have on the environment I started wondering about the impact of the countless coupons I receive in the mail everyday.

I did a rough estimate of the amount of coupons and fliers I receive and here are the results from the pay it green calculator.

Paper 20.2 pounds of paper wasted
Water 192 gallons of wastewater
Gasoline 6.5 gallons of gas
Greenhouse Gases 360 pounds of greenhouse gases
This amount of greenhouse gas is the equivalent of: 354 miles driven in your car
50 square feet of forest deforestation

I did not input any return mail so the numbers are very real. WOW

There are some alternatives to paper coupons.

1) Cell Fire

Cellfire delivers paperless coupons to your mobile phone so you’ll never have to clip coupons again. Cellfire is a download to your mobile phone and the catch, if there is one, is the company has to list their deals thru Cellfire. The benefit if you just pulled up to Ben & Jerry’s and want a coupon for your RockyRoad cone you can simply check on cellfire for any Ben & Jerry’s coupon codes.
I haven’t tried this service yet myself, if you have please tell me about it in the comments below.

2) Wifi On-line Codes

I really like the idea of giving of getting a coupon code right when I need it.
If you use a service like Brad’s Deals and have WiFi on your phone that’s all you need. If you are at BestBuy and decide to make a purchase you can go to Brad Deals and find the best coupon and then show the clerk the screen, with the coupon code at check out. It’s as simple as that.

3) Store Coupon Codes in your cell phone

If you don’t have Wi-Fi on your phone, you need to plan ahead a little to use your cell phone in lieu of paper coupons. Look up the coupon codes on line and store them in your phone contacts before you leave home.
I suggest using a contact name like X- Best Buy, to make it easy to find and delete when you are finished. Once you are at the check out simply provide the cashier with the applicable code number for your purchase.

Do you have other suggestions for paperless coupons?

  We recently covered Go Green with On-Line Bill Paying  and how it could help you organize your office and save you money at the same time. 

I have already switched my bills to electronic bill paying wherever possible, but I couldn’t resist trying this green financial footprint calculator to see how much I am saving.

By switching to electronic bills, statements, and payments, I conserve the following resources in 1 year:

Paper 5.6 pounds of paper saved

Water 53 gallons of wastewater prevented from discharging into lakes, streams and rivers

Gasoline 7.2 gallons of gas saved by not mailing your bills, statements, and payments

Greenhouse Gases 223 pounds of greenhouse gases avoided

This amount of greenhouse gas is the equivalent of: 219 miles not driven in your car

3 trees planted (and grown for 10 years)

31 square feet of forest preserved from deforestation

I must admit I am feeling pretty pleased with myself right now, saving all that with such an easy change, WOW!

Click on over to use Pay it Green’s calculator to see how much you, and your friends and family, can save by going with green with on-line billing.

If paying on-line is a new process for you please read our tips before you start.

If you have some companies that don’t offer on-line bill paying be sure to give them this web site link with your next check, maybe they will consider it.

Go Green One Change at a Time

Do you fill up your trash everyday with notes you are compelled to jot down?

One of the easiest ways to reduce paper is the simple dry erase board you see in my picture. 

Keeping the dry erase board by my computer has saved countless pieces of paper from unnecessary use.

Could you save paper by using a dry erase board?

Make your home office greener today with this straightforward tip.

If you don’t already have one check out The Green Office Link Below and order yours today.