Don't forget about your workplace

Especially in these times money CAN be everything. As humans we are meant to make choices to stay alive. When I was growing up I always made the choice to never turn off a light in my parents house when I was finished using it. At the time it never mattered to me. I wasn't paying the bills, I didn't understand that it was bumping up my parents electric bill day by day!

Now that I have a place and pay the bills I realize that the more I keeps things on and plugged in the higher my electric bill will be. Simple physics! Once you have to put down the cash all of a sudden turning off the lights matters. But what about the way you think at work? Let me guess, since you have nothing to do with paying that electric bill you don't think twice about turning off the lights, or unplugging the coffee pot when it's not in use. Everybody does this. How much paper do you print off at work because YOU don't have to pay for it? A lot. How much useless crap gets printed out at your workplace that is so unnecessary? Again, a lot.

Here is some information in an article IBM put out about how to make an office more green.

Save money on energy costs

Studies show that office equipment can account for 40% of the total electricity costs of an office building. One way to achieve the goal of a green office is a printer management program that outlines procedures for managing networked printers on a daily basis, saving you an average of 31% of that electricity cost, which translates into less replacement needs.

Posted By BMI Systems In OKLAHOMA CITY, OK On Sep 02, 2009

Don't think just because your at an office you can leave the lights on in the break room and it won't matter, it does. It's still electricity used that doesn't need to be on. Paper printed for dumb shit is stupid. Don't do it just because you can. It matters.

Here are some more paper based statistics from Techsoup.org

• 12,500 sheets of paper can be made from 1 tree **
• 210 billion sheets of paper are consumed by faxing in US companies every year. **
• 10,000 sheets of paper per year are used by a single US office worker **
• 95% of this paper will eventually be thrown away unrecycled. **
• 4 trees per year are cut down to feed the fax requirements of an average US company. **
• 17 million trees per year are cut down to supply fax paper for the US as a whole **