In pursuit of an selfsufficientish office

[The Chili Monster]

Hi all
Going off at a tangent but I was thinking about how one could expand on "The Paperless Office" thing. For example how could an office be made more ecofriendly, novel ideas for recycling, ideas for office furniture, fixtures and fittings (within the constraints of health and safety) or work practices.
I would welcome any input whether it is in the form of the tried and tested or perhaps just ideas.

[Wombat]

.............thought you were talking about Andy's place from the title there CM!

Nev

[The Chili Monster]

yeah sorry wombat. it's a bit misleading. unintentional though, going to see if i can change the title of the thread.

[The Chili Monster]

have changed it to "In pursuit of an selfsufficientish office". Don't think it's much better but adds distance to this website and forum.

[Andy Hamilton]

Some simple things that we actualy do

When we need to print for reference we use the other side of a bunch of invoices that my girlfriend bought back from her old job.

Reusing packaging for sending stuff off. Got 40 jiffy bags to send off the t-shirts in from freecycle. Which reminds me I must get down to the post office.

Energy saving light bulbs

Making sure that the main netwrok computer is the one that is used the most, so that two computers don't have to be on at once.

Turning off the monitor if downloading something and not at computer.

Listening to the radio through the computer.

And for more of list - Things we plan to do if we get more money

Run all the electricity off solar or wind power. This could be a portable solar pannel and a laptop at some point.

Plant trees to slightly offset the carbon used by us, our server and people accessing the site.

Also stuff like in trays and pen holders can be made out of old cardboard boxes and jars.

[Millymollymandy]

We print out on both sides of the paper (that started mainly thru saving money!)

Then we shred the paper and add it to the compost. You can get very cheap shredding machines (OK they run on electric but aren't on for very long!)

This is a home office though.

[wulf]

Making sure that the main netwrok computer is the one that is used the most, so that two computers don't have to be on at once.

I need to have two machines running at all times down at work as both are web servers with projects people may need to access at any time of day or night. However, I only need to have one monitor on - I can access the second machine using some free software called TightVNC.

Also stuff like in trays and pen holders can be made out of old cardboard boxes and jars.

I've been doing that for ages. Old beer cans or tin cans can make excellent pen pots, although you need to make sure all sharp edges are properly pressed down and made safe.

Wulf

[ina]

Have the economy print option on as standard on your printer - one of our IT boffins tells us that'll save the institute something like £3000 per year.

When I have to print off longer texts, I not only print double sided, but also two pages per side (provided the print isn't too small in the first place, of course).

And I never use new note pads - there's plenty of one-sided scrap paper around. Still working on persuading my dear colleagues to do that, too...

At the moment I've even switched off the fridge in the staff room - it only contained a bottle of milk - not very efficient use of energy, when there's plenty of snow just outside the backdoor! But I don't think I can keep that up for long, it's getting warmer...

[The Chili Monster]

Hi to all
thanks for all the advice -it will come in useful when I go self-employed later this year. And if you think of anything else ...

One further titbit. If you're a UK resident then take advantage of the telephone, fax and mail preference services. As a business, you can only join the fax and telephone lists at the moment. You can register on-line for FREE to prevent unsolicited snail mail, faxes and sales calls.
It's a simple process that literally takes just a minute or two, and will help reduce amount of ink and paper wastage.

I list the links below:
www.tpsonline.org.uk (Telephone)
www.ftponline.org.uk (Fax)
www.mpsonline.org.uk (Mail)