This Wednesday: MCC's Green Monsters...
...Are You One of Them ?
Ok now. I wasn't talking about the guy in the picture.
Some of the things green signify: tranquility, good luck, health, and jealousy. In our current time, there is one more important thing that green signifies "NATURE"
I know and I have noticed from the past week's discussions that our MCC has several Green related businesses, and even if you are not a direct green business you can make your business green by "practice" - any one small or big can make a difference. All you need is a heart for it.
DotSign follows some of the "Green ideas" to help our mother earth, save money, energy etc.
How about you? Are you a green business or have an idea to add ?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Few green tips that small / mid businesses can adapt:
Re-think recycling:
Look at what your company consumes and try to follow the mantra - reduce, reuse, recycle
• Recycle paper.
• Use less-toxic supplies and materials. There are a lot of companies that sell Green sustainable business supplies.
• Refill Ink cartridges rather than sending them to landfills
• Sell/donate your Old computers to companies that refurbish / reuse computer parts.
• You can even donate things that you don't use for your business to a worthy school or non profit.
• Do not print emails and documents unless it is really needed.
• Use whiteboards instead of scribbling papers
Tidbit - Did you know you can buy stylish furniture from certified, sustainably harvested and/or recycled and salvaged materials
Re-think Energy
• Turn lights off where & when not needed
• Install energy efficient bulbs and appliances,
• Insulate your facilities, and keep an eye on consumption• Install solar panels, There are photo thermal based in case if you are afraid about photo voltaic which functions based of light only for the cloudy days.
• If you have more funds to invest try building-integrated wind turbines, and flux capacitors
Re think Transportation
Transportation can have a huge impact on the bottom line for businesses large and small. In fact, the IRS just announced the 2007 hybrid Saturn Aura was recently certified for an alternative motor vehicle credit.
• If you have company vehicle, go for Smaller vehicles, Hybrids, Flex fuels.
• Minimize travel.
• If your business style allows your employee to work from home once a week. Something to think about.
• Car pool if possible
Now as a business professional are you ready to make a difference - Be Green !
[Ref & resources for facts: Forbes, money.cnn.com, Treehugger.com,]
Wishing You Success,
Henry Joshua
.DotSign
www.Dot-Sign.com
"Gateway To Your Web Identity"
| Topic | Replies | Likes | Views | Participants | Last Reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NoWhoUR a lesson in authentic branding | 0 | 0 | 179 | ||
| Getting Ish Done | 0 | 0 | 338 | ||
| Get Better at Communicating NOW | 1 | 0 | 434 |
I like this post Henry especially the part of recycling transportation.
We all know that we don't have a good system for mass transit (people mover not withstanding).
What if we were to actually use the RSVP list for our meetings to see with whom we could carpool? Isn't that a novel idea?
We all need to do our part not only to stimulate the economy but to clean up our environment.
Isn't MCC just full of some of the coolest people? Seriously, you guys are great!
Great post, Henry!
There are a number of companies that collect empty ink cartridges, refill and sell, then donate the funds to charities. I know that the Mary Kay organization does this, and you can get special (postage paid) pink mailing packages from any Mary Kay rep. Be green and be charitable at the same time!
Let's harken back to the days of print material before we all communicated and met in cyberspace. Oh goodness! We're still there, printing materials for posting, snail mailing, inter/intraoffice materials. So going back into my mode of design, here are a few tips for keeping your printing green.
• Postings and handouts - consider using the half page format (or even possibly 1/4 page) format. Besides you'll take up less space on the bulletin board and do we really need to see a ltr size sign instructing us to shut the door you dork?
• When working with your designer on your next print project, try thinking inside the page. Using a bleed (printing to the edge of the paper) requires printing on a larger sheet of paper to that must be trimmed down to size.
For more ideas and extensive explanations check out Dynamic Graphics' Printing Green: 12 things you need to know
Nice tip Suzanne. Thanks for the ref. article.
I like the idea of minimizing waste and optimizing the design for print work (not many thinks about it) What if I take it to the next step and minimized the need for print material at all and maximize the use of electronic displays and the internet.
I believe its not possible to eliminate the need for print 100% but I believe there is still a lot more room to be utilized in the electronic direction.
Suzanne, your tips are solid AND mindful... thanks for posting this.
Personally, I hope print never goes away. As much as the internet allows us instant communication and the ability to save paper & ink, there is something wonderful about opening your (snail) mailbox to find a thoughtful, handwritten note, or to leaf through a favorite magazine, away from the computer.
The challenge in terms of marketing and daily business communication is in finding the balance between the two avenues that works for us, personally and professionally.
Linda,
Here is one avenue to reduce "Print Wastage" - reduce JUNK MAILS !!
I had an exciting telephone conversation with Sandra Maurer a couple of weeks ago, we were discussing about "green businesses" and we hit on the topic of Junk Mail - How these junk mails are wasting papers and energy and how we can reduce it.
Here is some thing innovative and interesting Sandra does -
--> Take the return envelope with pre paid postage mark on it (this envelope is enclosed usually). She then stuffs the rest of the papers that came with the original mail (all the junk ) in it and sends it back to the sender !!
Brilliant ! I was laughing with her about that idea. Junk mailer get their junk mail and over time we hope because of their cost incurred, if more people do this - they might stop doing this (Now they might go to a different idea though
)
Here is one more inexpensive way to make your business greener. Add environmentally and socially responsible mutual funds to your 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plan. It costs no more money, and my spark additional interest in investing -- which we all know we need to do.
If you'd like to know more about how to do it, give me a call or drop me a note.
Jeff
Terry
BTW - to your reply:
I love your idea of "Car pooling" and including "Car Pool" option in our RSVP part... I love it.