5 Green Gadgets for Your Home Office

If you’re a telecommuter, you probably feel extra-good about your job during the holiday season. With so much to get done, so many people to see, and so much good cheer in which to partake, it’s very apparent why telecommuting jobs rock. Because you work from a home office, you spend less time commuting back and forth to work, and can spend that extra time decorating the house, baking cookies, shopping for presents online, and sending holiday cards. As you consider what you might like to give and get this holiday season, think about the ways you can go green in your home office, and help other telecommuters do the same.

As a telecommuter, you are in a prime position to work in environmentally responsible ways. You’re already cutting down on gas, using less office space, lighting, heat/air conditioning, and electrical appliances, and hopefully you’re taking other steps to go green at work. This year, when someone asks you what you’d like for holiday gifts, ask for these green home office gadgets to continue your best green practices.

A Smart Strip. Finally, someone has taken the regular old power strip and made it even more functional. With a smart strip, each outlet has its own designated on/off switch so that you can power down the devices you’re not using, while continuing to power those in use.

A laptop instead of a desktop. For the average office worker, laptops are a powerful and eco-friendly alternative to clunky desktops, which consume twice as much power as a laptop. And if you like the size of desktop monitors, consider an LED flat screen monitor that plugs into your laptop, so you’ve got the best of both worlds.

The Ecobutton. This fun, one-touch gadget makes it super easy to put your computer into sleep mode when you walk away from your desk. Instead of having to press a combination of buttons on your keyboard and spend time waiting for it to power down into sleep mode, or wake back up, the Ecobutton allows you to press one button and have everything power down and up instantly, no waiting. A gadget that saves time AND energy!

A Hand-Powered Paper Shredder. As you make the move to paperless, you might find yourself with a lot of leftover papers that you no longer need and want to recycle securely. Instead of using an electric paper shredder, use a hand-powered one, which works when you pull the paper through the shredder. Bonus - you can go green and get buff at the same time!

Cork or Recycled Tablet and Phone (News - Alert) Cases. Companies are catering to the green office worker by creating sleeves and cases for computer tablets and smart phones made out of sustainably harvested materials like cork or recycled plastic bottles. They’re stylish and better for the environment.

As a telecommuter, you are the master of your home office and you have the ability, and perhaps the responsibility, to practice environmentally responsible habits in your daily work life. Green gadgets like these make being a friend to the environment both fun and functional. So, this holiday season, as you think of the gifts you want to give and receive, consider a green gadget or two.

Brie Weiler Reynolds is a freelance writer and the Manager of Content and Community Outreach at FlexJobs, the leading site for telecommuting and flexible job listings, where she blogs and manages social media. A college career advisor by trade, Brie writes about job search and career advice, workplace trends, personal finance, and lifestyle. She finds joy in discovering and creating useful information and resources which help others to bring order and purpose to their lives, and she is passionate about work-life balance and environmental sustainability. A native of upstate New York, Brie has lived in Boston, New Jersey, and Atlanta over the past ten years, and enjoys traveling at home and abroad.