Whether you’ve considered the impact your small or home office has on the environment yet or not, these 10 office going green tips will help you create or improve the greeness of your office.

Most small business owners have enough on their hands just running their business, let alone finding time for considering the carbon footprint of their businesses. The good news is that as the green office grows in popularity it is increasingly easy to find some good green business policies and green products.

1. Consider Consumption

Consumption is a basic consideration when it comes to going green with your office. A primary goal should be to consume less. With this in mind many little examples, and probably a few large ones, of where you can decrease consumption will turn up. Over time your going green attention will result in finding many ways to cut down on waste, which in turn saves you money while helping the environment. The simplest going green consumption fix for the office is to get in the habit of turning off computers and other appliances when not in use. When it comes to paper, implement a green office policy of printing on both sides wherever possible and go paperless wherever possible.

2. Implement a Green Office Policy

Take a few minutes to write up a simple green office policy regarding your green business ideals and goals. This might include topics such as consumption and notes about problem areas. Your green office policy should also cover such things as recycling, as well as the how and why your office has adopted the recycling policy. Distribute your green office policy to all employees and post it on the company website.

3. Buy Recycled Office Products

Items like paper, toner cartridges and plastics of all kinds are now more available in recycled versions. These are generally the same price or cheaper than comparable office products made from non-renewable sources, so take a look at all the products you buy and make some switches to recycled or otherwise green office products.

4. Replace Incandescent Bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

Compact fluorescent bulbs use a fraction of the energy and last much longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. These cost about 4 times as much as incandescent bulbs, but actually turn out to be cheaper when you consider how much longer they last. Then there is the reduced cost of electricity used, making the switch to compact fluorescent bulbs a simple going green office policy.

5. Donate Unused Office Supplies and Equipment

Rather than hang on to old or unused office equipment like computers, furniture or other electronics like cell phones, donate these items to a charity or goodwill store, to a school, library or nursing home. It will free up space, donations are tax deductible, and you’ll be giving your unused stuff an additional life while helping to meet the needs of others. Green up your office while helping others find the goods they need.

6. Switch to Soy Based Ink

When implementing a going green plan for your office, you may be surprised to discover the many benefits of soy-based ink. For starters, soy ink has fewer harmful toxins than petroleum based ink and it produces much brighter and sharper colors because of the innate clearness of the soybean oil used to manufacture soy-based ink. The benefits don’t stop there. Using soy based ink makes later recycling of the paper easier because the ink is easier to remove in the de-inking process. Soy-based ink prices are comparable to petroleum-based ink, but it takes less soy ink for the same print job.

Studies have shown that if all oil-based inks were replaced by soy based ink, “457 million pounds of soybean oil, equivalent to 41.5 million bushels.  This represents only about 1.8% of U.S. Soybean production” (Weisenbach, 2000).  Thus, soy bean producers could easily supply the demand for soy-based inks and even toner, if soy-derived toner became the market standard.  Unlike oil, soy is a renewable product, and soy-based toner offers a cleaner and sustainable source of toner.

Check out a retailer of soy ink like SoyPrint.net.

7. Eliminate Vending Machine Waste

First of all, avoid vending machines whenever possible, while considering the needs of your employees of course. A typical refrigerated vending machine consumes 400 Watts -at a rate of 6.39 cents per kWh, this comes out to an annual operating cost of $225. If at all possible, provide means and/or machines that allow employees to make their own beverages and snacks without resorting to vending machines. If a vending machine is necessary, ask the company to de-lamp the machine -this can save $100 per year alone. Of course the simplest solution for going green here is to encourage employees to bring their own beverages and food.

8. Cut Down on Travel / Work From Home

One of the greenest solutions for the office is to work from home and reduce the number of trips taken in a car. Even if you have a physical office that you need to go to, there are usually ways to organize activities in such a way that you can spend one day a week at home doing work form there. Or better yet, find a way for the whole office to do their paper work, etc. from home once a week. If this is not possible perhaps having four 10-hour days is doable -this will increase the amount of time you can leave heating/cooling and office appliances turned off or in sleep mode. Try to condense trips for supplies into fewer trips. This will save time and money as well as reduce the use of non-renewable resources.

9. Choose Green Products

There are a growing number of options when it comes to choosing green products for use in your office. When it comes to appliances, look for the EnergyStar rating to find equipment that uses less power. For cleaning needs many stores now carry green cleaning products.

Going green at the office doesn’t have to involve special trips to different vendors of green office supplies. There are many green office products available from Amazon.com, such as eco-friendly kitchen supplies, to recycled paper products, pens, and other green organizational office supplies.

10. Support Vendors Who Have Green Policies

From your office supply company to your bank and shipping company, choose vendors who provide green products and/or have green office policies. Every little bit helps, so ask around about who has good practices and then give your business to those companies.