MPDC's Green Team Shares 6 Tips to Green Your Home and Office!

Greening your home and office can provide many financial, environmental and health benefits.  MPDC's Green Team shared 6 tips to help you green your home and office in our March newsletter:

In the Office

1. Save paper:      

When using the copier at work, make two-sided copies whenever possible.  And, before you recycle paper, turn it blank side up (if it has one) and place it in a skinny 3-ring binder or on a clipboard.  Use this for note-taking, instead of new pad.

Or, if it has a blank side, cut your 8.5 x 11 used paper  into half, stack all pages and staple at the top to make a notepad.

2. Save energy:

Lights should be turned off in an unoccupied conference room and/or office.  If you walk by and the light is on, switch the light off.  

3. Cut waste:

Use mugs in the kitchen rather than paper/plastic/stryrofoam cups.  Bring a mug from home as your personal coffee cup.
 

At Home

4. Save paper:

Make rags. Save old towels and T-shirts for cleaning.  Cut them into squares and they become useful rags that can replace store bought rags and paper towels.

5. Save energy:

a.     Schedule an energy audit to learn more about your energy consumption and what steps you can take to cut energy costs.  Many utility companies and service providers perform energy audits at no or low cost to you.
 

b.     Keep windows and drapes closed on hot days to reduce radiant solar gain.
 

c.     Apply door sweeps to the bottom exterior doors and install weather stripping to minimize gaps and thus heat loss.

6. Cut waste:

a.     Send the front of holiday greeting cards you receive to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children.  The children at St. Jude’s can make and sell new cards from the old ones they receive.  (St. Jude’s Ranch for Children;  200 St. Jude’s Street; POB 60100; Boulder City, NV  89006)
 

b.     Recycle worn-out athletic shoes. NIKE will take your worn-out athletic shoes and turn them into NIKE GRIND – a material used in sports surfaces (nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml?page=27).
 

c.     Purchase antique or estate sale jewelry instead of new.  The mining of precious metals and gems in many countries has been the source of environmental degradation, political turmoil and human rights violation.  When it comes to used jewelry, you are not tied to the design or setting.  You can reset stones or recast metal to update the jewelry (check out Pinterest for many ideas).