SMBs: How to Go and Stay Green

Staples is a firm that many small- and mid-sized businesses have come to depend on for advice in buying technology. Now the office supply superstore chain offers some advice on going and staying green with these tools.

 

Staples Network Services by Thrive, a Staples business that provides SMBs with access to a full range of IT services, recently compiled a list of such tips. These are intended to help organizations develop a green IT policy that, over time, will yield positive returns for the environment and generate green on the bottom line.  These proven hints include:

    

 

One of the easiest ways to save energy is to configure a computer to reduce its power consumption.  By setting a computer to enter sleep/standby mode, or to shut down the hard drive or monitor after a certain period of inactivity, you can cut power usage by over 90 percent. Another practice to consider is to instruct users to fully turn their computers off at the end of each day, or at least before the weekend.

 

 

It’s been estimated that if the 40 percent of Americans whose jobs could be done remotely actually did work from home, 625 million barrels of oil a year would be saved – or around $43 billion in gas costs. Reduced travel costs aren’t the only benefit of telecommuting. For businesses, studies show that not only will you see higher employee satisfaction, but you’ll also notice a reduction in overhead office costs. 

 

 

The printer is one of the largest sources of waste in an office, but there are tools you can use to cut down on the use of paper and toner. GreenPrint is an application that analyzes documents sent to a printer and identifies waste.  It will recommend which pages should be printed, which shouldn’t, and different ways to condense print jobs.  In addition to using an application like GreenPrint, consider saving a document as a PDF and e-mailing it instead of printing or faxing.

 

 

One of the fastest growing forms of waste in the U.S. is electronic equipment, called e-waste. Unfortunately only 15 to 20 percent of outdated electronic equipment is recycled properly, and the remaining 75 to 80 percent usually ends up at landfills where chemicals such as lead, mercury, and chromium seep into the water supply. 

 

The first step organizations should take when deciding what to do with outdated equipment is to determine if it should be reused or recycled, says Staples/Thrive. If the equipment is less than five years old, consider donating it to an organization that will refurbish it and provide it to schools or charities. If the equipment is older than five years or is broken, it should be sent to a reputable computer recycler who will salvage reusable parts and safely remove and dispose of hazardous chemicals. A list of refurbishers and recyclers, as well as other helpful information on disposing of e-waste, is available on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site.