Solutions for Offices

Green Your Nonprofit Offices and Operations

2009-04-22T17:46:21Z

Green Your Offices
It takes an inside champion to get an organization started on a greener pathway. You can practice your leadership skills at the same time you develop new job skills AND green your own workplace environment by initiating a green program. And you don't have to do it alone. The San Francisco based Connect the Dots nonprofit is making it easy for you by providing an easy to implement system just for nonprofits!

Green Your Community Services
Connect the Dots disseminates environmental sustainability practices to nonprofit organizations to help organizations meet their social missions in an environmentally responsible manner. They provide the guidance nonprofit organizations need to realize their desire for environmental responsibility. Now nonprofit organizations can undertake the path towards sustainability and truly maximize their care for the communities they serve.

The Green Start Program

The Connect the Dots consulting program, the Green Start program, concentrates on high impact, minimal effort conservation practices to "jumpstart" organizations towards sustainability.

Initially, they act as an extension of an organization's staff, planning and taking action on its behalf, including scheduling audits with existing programs, creating action lists and implementing them, setting up and/or facilitating an internal "green team" group, developing a strategy, and setting up and monitoring savings.

Over time, as organizations acclimate to using our tools (e.g. action worksheets, monitoring tools, etc.), they take over their own planning, execution, and tracking of their green program.

For 3 months, Connect The Dots partners with nonprofits to serve as "personal trainers" to address the most beneficial greening processes:

Waste Management
Energy & Utilities
Environmentally-Preferred Purchasing Policy
Education & Outreach
Tracking & Reporting

To promote ongoing changes, the Connect The Dots' methodology integrates planning and tracking tools to help nonprofits make informed decisions about environmental sustainability.

CONTACT:
Connect The Dots
1442 Florida Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.830.5858 or 888.666.0031
www.connectthedotsnetwork.org

CGS Training Directory

Review the green and sustainable training courses and resources available to our readers. Check back often, new green job/career training courses are added frequently. TRAINING CATALOG

Benefits switching from non-recycled paper products to 100% recycled

2009-04-13T14:23:06Z

Solid waste reduction efforts are being made by continually removing items from the trash stream and diverting them to recycling.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board documents how the benefits of switching from non-recycled paper products to 100% recycled products yields the following additional savings:

NAPKINS and TOWELS

One hospital converted virgin napkins and towels to recycled content and the results were:

33.80 tons of recycled paper used
189,000 gallons of water saved
81 cubic yards of landfill space saved
110,700 kilowatts of energy saved
1,620.00 pounds of air pollutants saved

BLUE WRAP

Isolation of recyclable materials from an office or hospitals' various waste streams and observing strict guidelines have allowed one hospital, St. Mary's Medical Center, to develop a system over three years of collection, packaging, storing and shipping that has reduced over 85 % of their purchased "Blue Wrap" plastic that is used to protect sterilized or "clean" health care equipment without a single incident of contamination in the shipped material.

All of this recycling was conducted within a footprint of less than 20 square feet including processing and storage.

Recycling of "Blue Wrap' is a huge opportunity for medical offices and facilities to reduce landfill, reduce their costs for disposable plastic supplies, and provide additional environmental benefits with no loss of quality in service.

Blue Wrap may not be the largest segment of the waste stream for hospitals, but it is a unifying product they all use; and by establishing networking opportunities with local governments, recyclers and haulers, other materials can be targeted.

Blue Wrap purchasing for 2005 in a representative sample of 60 various sized facilities found that 424,563 pounds or 212 tons of non-reusable plastic was used. Recyclers estimate that this represents 1/3 of the combined amount of blue wrap and stretch wrap for the facilities.

It's possible to achieve a 20% reduction in the volume of waste from surgical suites. That's significant.

Green Jobs Training Catalog

2008-11-23T19:34:13Z

California Green Solutions is building a robust catalog of professional training courses and certification programs offered by private companies and colleges. You will find this robust catalog covers business law, construction, human resources...as well as engineering and green building...and more.

Visit the Green and Sustainable Job Training Catalog at: CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com

Green Office Certification from GreenLine Paper

2008-08-18T15:32:31Z

GreenLine Paper offers a Green Office Certification to companies and other organizations which meet environmentally friendly certification requirements. GreenLine also offers their monthly Green Office News e-newsletter with environmental news and tips on greener office practices.

Greenline Paper offers the Green Office Certification to companies which meet their environmentally friendly certification requirements. The company must use energy wisely, recycle, use recycled products, and be environmentally savvy. There are 24 questions concerning topics like energy, building construction, supplies, recycling and transportation, which determine your green ranking. The form takes approximately 10 minutes to fill out. If you meet the requirements, they will send you a certification graphic for your website, which when clicked, will show the date of your certification. This do-it-yourself certificate program indicates to the world that you are environmentally concerned. Click on the logo below to begin your certification process.

Light That’s More Efficient Than An LED and Hot As The Sun

2008-05-03T17:52:30Z

This tiny little pill sized light bulb from the folks at Luxim, emits ’sun spectrum light’ and at the core of the bulb radiates the same heat level, 6,000 Calvin. That’s 140 lumens per watt - 15 lumens per watt for a regular light bulb and 70 for an LED - and converts most of its energy into actual light, unlike most lights which convert it into heat. How does it accomplish this feat? $40 million in VC funding of course.

LIFI leads a new class of solid-state high-intensity light sources that combine the best features of solid-state electronics and full spectrum plasma emitters. The results are long-life, energy efficiency and complete color spectrum for lighting applications like general and specialty lighting and projection displays like wide screen HDTVs and projectors.

LUXIM's LIFI^™ technology provides superior performance for high definition projection televisions and home theater projectors using DLP^™, transmissive LCD and LCoS microdisplay technologies.

Specialty lighting includes LIFI applications like medical and analytical instrument lighting. Endoscopy, microscopy and other equipment are made possible with the highest level of color rendering available from a long life light source.

LIFI brings together the best qualities of solid state electronics and plasma based emitters in a high intensity light source capable of more than 140 lumens per watt. This efficacy combined with 20,000 lumen output per source make LIFI ideal for applications in entertainment, industrial, architectural, area and street lighting.

LUXIM
Sunnyvale, California
www.luxim.com

Solar Powered Desk for Electronic Gadget Charging

2008-05-03T17:50:36Z

Not all solar installations have to be on the rooftop...or even permanent in one place. Take this new desk design:

The SOLo Lounge Table might change the working habits of teckies. Built into the surface of this roll-around table are solar panels that charge up its internal battery and power your devices. It can connect to a variety of devices and there’s a drawer for storing and charging your gadgets. The SOLo alse features Bluetooth connectivity for system monitoring in addition to the included System Monitor display/device. More info here.

EPEAT Environmental Impact Certification Program for Computer Equipment

2008-04-02T14:48:42Z

US Federal Government Issues EPEAT Purchasing Requirement

The US Federal Government has integrated an EPEAT requirement into the Federal Acquisition Regulations – the 'rulebook' of the federal purchasing sector. The Federal Acquisition Regulations require federal agencies to purchase at least 95% EPEAT-registered products in all relevant electronic product categories.

San Francisco ICT EPEAT Policies for 2008

San Francisco city studied the environmental impact of information and communication technology (ICT). Based on the experience of commercial buildings, approximately 20-25% of building energy is attributable to ICT. Because of this impact, ICT has significant potential to enable innovative solutions to the environmental challenges of energy use and can be an effective tool to advance sustainable economic development.

Beginning in April 2008, city departments shall only purchase personal and notebook computers and monitors that meet at least the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Silver standard, with a preference for the Gold standard.
The Committee on Information Technology (COIT) shall ensure technology projects are reviewed for environmental impact and support the City’s environmental goals.
By June 2008, the Department of Technology and Information Services (DTIS) shall implement a paper reduction pilot program with the goal to reduce general office paper consumption by 20%. At the conclusion of this pilot program, the City’s Chief Information Officer will recommend a paper reduction policy to COIT for immediate implementation.
By September 2008, DTIS shall report on the results of a pilot program to implement centralized power management systems for personal computers. This will strengthen Executive Order 05-104 (September 23, 2005) which mandated the installation of power management functions.
Finally, the City’s Chief Information Officer will develop a baseline measurement of energy consumption and environmental impact of the City’s overall ICT operations to be able to measure and fully implement supporting steps that will enable us to continue to find new strategies to address the environmental challenges of energy use and waste creation.

EPEAT Computer Products Environmental Organization

EPEAT is a system to help purchasers in the public and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks and monitors based on their environmental attributes. EPEAT also provides a clear and consistent set of performance criteria for the design of products, and provides an opportunity for manufacturers to secure market recognition for efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its products.

The EPEAT Registry on this web site includes products that have been declared by their manufacturers to be in conformance with the environmental performance standard for electronic products - IEEE 1680- 2006. The standard is summarized here, and may be purchased from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. EPEAT operates a verification program to assure the credibility of the Registry.

Some of the participating manufacturers include:

Apple, CTL Corp, Dell, Enano, Fujitsu, GETAC, HP, Hyundai IT America, Lenovo, LG Electronic USA, MDG Comptuers Canada, MPC Computers, NCS Technologies, NEC Display Solutions, Northern Micro, One Laptop Per child, Panasonic, Philips Electronics, Prosys Tech, Samsung Elec. America, Sony Electronics, Toshiba, Transource, ViewSonic, Zonbu.

www.epeat.net/

Thin Clients Save 25% Energy Costs over Desktop PCs

2008-03-28T17:46:47Z

Smart terminals are back -- now they're called "THIN CLIENTS." And they offer added energy efficiency and savings.

The move to thin clients can save a company 25 percent in power savings, according to a recent report from Forrester.

As InfoWorld reports, the lower power bills can be attributed to the fact that thin clients “consume anywhere from 6 to 50 watts - far less than the 150 to 350 watts used by typical PCs.” They have a second green advantage, a longer lifecycle than PCs.

The choice of thin clients over PCs on the business desktop has reduced CO2 emissions in Western Europe by 166,000 tonnes in 2007 - equivalent to the emissions of more than 540 return flights from London to New York, according to research carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany for IGEL Technology, a thin client vendor.

“Energy consumption when in operation was up to 50 percent lower than for conventional PCs,” concluded Dr Hartmut Pflaum, the Fraunhofer researcher. “While PCs consume about 85 watts on average, thin clients including their server get by with 40 to 50 watts. In view of climate change and the need to reduce CO2 emissions, this is an important factor.”

With IDC figures reporting just over 3.4m thin clients sold in Western Europe since 2004 and an average machine lifecycle of 4 years, the research finds that thin client-based businesses have reduced CO2 emissions by 166,000 tonne in 2007.

Sustainable Furniture for Greener Offices

2008-02-25T22:39:52Z

Office furniture contributes to landfills when they aren't purchased with sustainable features and benefits at their core. Sustainable materials, manufacturing processes and care are part of your office's green profile. The Sustainable Furniture Council can point you to some sustainable companies providing high performance office furniture.

The Sustainable Furniture Council is a non-profit balanced coalition of industry players created to promote sustainable practices among manufacturers, retailers, and consumers alike with a public tagging program to identify good choices.

The SFC recognizes the overwhelming scientific consensus that our world is experiencing dangerous global climate change. SFC members acknowledge the tremendous urgency, and will take immediate steps to minimize carbon emissions, waste stream pollutants, un-recyclable content and primary materials from unsustainable sources from any product platform under our control.

PROBLEM: Poor performance furniture that has short lifespan and unsustainable materials

SOLUTION: Sustainable furniture with high quality materials and design for longer life, less VOCs and less waste.

Saving Inkjet Cartridges for Cost Savings and Landfill Reduction

2008-02-24T17:28:06Z

Inkjet printers at the desktop are more affordable than ever, but the high cost of replacement cartridges has many consumers seeking a better way to restock their ink supply. The millions of pounds of waste that ink cartridges create each year also leaves environmentally-conscious consumers hunting for greener alternatives.

One solution is not to print as many pages -- especially emails that can be filed in folders on your desktop and quickly forwarded to people who need to receive the information in the email. "REDUCTION" is the best form of resource conservation... and savings!

Walgreens encourages its customers to bring empty black or color cartridges to any of nearly 1,500 Walgreens photofinishing counters in the U.S. and have them refilled in just a few minutes for half the cost of buying a new one.

Other companies are testing refill services as well, including OfficeMax and Office Depot.

Save On Inks, a Boston-based ink cartridge provider, said it will put ink refill machines in hotels and strip malls around Boston and in Florida. And makers of ink refill equipment, such as TonerHead Inc., SME Inc. and InkTec Zone America Corp., say other deals with retailers are coming.

Online companies offer cartridge refills and kits. Off-brand inks should be checked for reliability and quality and your printer guarantee.

http://www.misterinkjet.com (Waco TX)

http://www.inksupply.com (MIS Associates, Lake Orion, MI)

http://www.inkjetrefills.com (iMagnan Corp, Ottawa, Canada)

Search Google, Yahoo or other search engine for "refill inkjet cartridges"

http://www.atlanticinkjet.com/

Office conservation starts with looking at your "System" and determining what communications methods work best for your type of communication needs. For example, spreadsheets that need financial or mathematical analysis might need to be printed out more than meeting plan notes that can be easily forwarded and read online -- or even on your mobile smart phone.

Think "systems!"

Energy Efficiency and Green Spaces for Home Offices

2008-02-22T00:11:15Z

Spaces for productivity require special equipment, special lighting, and special furnishings. You spend most of your waking hours at your work (and play), and it's healthful to spend your work time in healthful rooms.

Green office strategies can help clean your air, improve your light, and make your equipment more cost effective with Energy Star ratings that are measured to improve energy savings.

We're building a "magalog" to help you think through the best design for your home office and workspaces, and find the right equipment, supplies and furnishings to make yur home office productive and stimulating. You could even call it "mood lifting!

Energy, Paper and Water Efficient Solutions for Offices

Offices are energy hogs! With lighting, air conditioning, heating, ventilation, computer equipment, fans, radios, and more computers and peripherals, offices need a green and sustainable makeover! Extreme style!

This blog will help you think through your tasks, your lighting, your paper usage and all those things that clutter your mind. We're determined to help you find cost effective solutions to make your days productive and healthful!

Office Product Categories

Home Lighting
Office Lighting
Communication Options
Computer and Electronic Equipment
Better Paper Strategies
Low-impact Materials for Office Furnishings