Do you have a green business?

The idea of having a green business is very topical at the moment and every change we make to the way we consume resources and reduce waste helps. Here are the green things I do as part of my business practice. What can you do in your business?

Legs

I got rid of my car almost ten years ago, instead opting to pay more to live closer to the city and a train station. Public transport makes for longer travel times, but I use this time to catch up on my reading, writing, emails or just relaxing and staring out the window.

I walk where possible, especially between meetings in the city. Walking often brings much welcomed clarity to the thoughts in my head.

Not having a car is probably the largest single factor in slowing down my days as I am not tempted to book back-to-back meetings. On the rare mad-schedule days, I use taxis.

Cafés

I work out of cafés quite a bit and I try to choose ones that use washable cutlery and crockery to cut down on my use of disposable cups and spoons.

Working from a café or a client’s premises means I am in a space that is already lit and air conditioned and this avoids the unnecessarily duplication of resources and costs.

Laptops

I use a laptop for many reasons. It is engineered from the ground up to be much more energy efficient than a desktop PC. Having an on-board battery protects me from power outages. And when required, I can literally put all my work away in a drawer.

A laptop also gives me the freedom to work wherever I want. It turns public transport into productive time.

To further conserve power, I set my Power Options to power off the monitor after 15 minutes of inactivity. This also extends the life of my screen.

Because I like everything on-screen to stay where I had them, I use the Hibernate or Stand By feature to put the laptop into sleep mode instead of shutting it down. This saves almost as much power as a complete shutdown.

Paperwork

I read and write almost everything completely on-screen these days. I chose a laptop with a high-resolution screen so the text is sharp and legible, and I can work with two A4 pages side by side. I also have an external LCD monitor that is pivoted to a portrait format so I can see an entire A4 page in actual size without scrolling! On the rare occasions when I do print draft documents, I use the draft mode to reduce toner usage and print two sheets to a page.

The on-screen mark-up tools in Word and Acrobat make it easier to collaborate with others without needing to print the documents first. All the documentation I supply my clients is electronic and designed with legible fonts and layouts to ensure good on-screen legibility.

I don’t use pre-printed pamphlets for marketing as I find the web far more adaptive and flexible. The only printed material I have is my business card! I also try to file everything electronically. All of my important personal and business documents are kept on my secured and backed-up hard disk. If there ever was a fire, all I need to grab is my laptop and the cat!

Software

I use Adobe Acrobat to ‘staple’ together pages generated from different applications, review and mark-up documents, fill-in and sign forms and store scanned documents.

I also use software like the World Community Grid agent to automatically capture and use the spare processor cycles to compute cures for diseases.

I buy software via downloads where possible. Not only do I get instant satisfaction, I also save on GST if the supplier is overseas and I avoid the environmental impact of storing, packing and shipping. I don’t print the electronic manuals, as they are far more useful in a fully searchable form!

These are certainly not definitive measures, still I hope they have inspired you to look at how green your business is.

Please share your tips and thoughts below!

Zern Liew is a thinking designer who uses his creative problem solving skills to help clients build beautiful businesses.

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Need to do more work on that, Zern, but I do know from Red and Shirley etc that 'Eco is not a dirty word' ! Grant Hyman from Sydney | Read my articles
I've tried to reduce my 'footprint' for years and do very much as Zern: I don't own a car, nor a landline (use only mobile), nor a clothes washer or drier (I wash at the laundrette - which I can claim on tax - and try to dry solar), however my latest addition is turning off all my stand-by electronics at the wall. Just a little thing, but if we ALL did it ... Joanne at balm or energy massage therapies from Milsons Point
City people have different options to the mountains, outlying areas or country based people as we can't all live in the cities. Mobile reception is not consistent out here so landlines are essential for both phone and broadband. Nor is public transport an option. But using smaller, fuel efficient cars is a good option. I wish more people would drive smaller vehicles instead of their large 4 wheel drives. We live in an older area, and our house breathes - cooling and heating efficiently as it is weatherboard with verandahs. We, and most people we know, recycle our paper and bottles, turn lights off when leaving rooms, power down computers after half an hour and similar. My office printer (very necessary in my work) is very eco-friendly despite being large and we recycle toners and drums. We have a bucket in the shower to collect cold water and over-splash and put that everyday in our washing machine. We recently converted to gas heating and gas instant hot water which is a very small unit, only heating the water we use and is classed as very environmentally friendly.
There is a desperate need for good infrastructure and transport for the areas away from the cities to help reduce wastage - and we also need more areas for producing fruit and vegetables as many of those fertile areas closer to the city have been taken over for housing, thereby increasing transport costs for those essentials. Karen from Springwood NSW
There is no one magic rule for everyone. Depending on where we live and how we live, we can do different things to reduce our footprint. And there is always a weigh-up between practicality and eco footprint. As Karen pointed out, doing without a car in the country is impractical and possibly dangerous. Back to the office: if you run a server that is accessed even occasionally offsite, it may not be practical to turn it off every night. Zern Liew from Sydney | Read my articles
I work in an industry which employes 11% of the workforce. It has only been in the last four os five years that employers within the industry have been told about green products.There are many who have or are starting to switch over, and this may take several years to completely change. However there are certain suppliers and employers that will not or arenot interested in changing over to green products. People become set in their ways and change is something they fight all their lives.
Unfortunately change is what is happening all over the world and in every industry. more and more people are learning about green products and through education the Green revelution will develop and gradually overtake what we have taken as the right products for particular jobs.
If I can turn my business into a green business in less that two years so can others. They have to want to. patrick burgess from north ryde
I like what I'm hearing from you Zern and Flying Solo. While I do practice what I preach re green things, and I support WWF in any way I can, I'm also doing a book called "The ABC of Carbon", all about the issues and opportunities in the global cinate change environment. I'm showing what businesses are doing, what products and services are available,as well as insights into governments and organisations around the world in this space.. I'm also quoting "leaders" who are advocating change (like Zern). Maybe if any one has ideas or something to contribute, let me know through flying solo. Cheers Ken Ken Hickson from Brisbane

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