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green officeHaving a degree and background in Environmental Studies makes it easy question for me to answer. Yet, as we get busy with our business and our lives, it is easy to let it slip out of our minds.

This weekend I was reading a brochure from a company that claims to be green. First of all, a 50 page brochure is not green in my opinion, but they mean well. It did get me thinking about what we do as a business and as an empty nest household to reduce our footprint.

We are a bit atypical to the rest of the world, but this list might give you some things to ponder.

  1. When we chose an office, we also chose a place close by to live to reduce our commute, which is now only 3 minutes!
  2. We have shared one vehicle since 2000. There are only a couple of days per month that trip us up. But, hey, I can always rent a car if needed and save that extra payment and upkeep.
  3. Love local farmers markets, and organic if we can find it at the markets.
  4. When we were looking for an office, I chose one with windows so I did not have to turn on those blasted overhead lights.
  5. Use online bill pay. I used to buy stamps in rolls of 100. I now use one stamp every two months, maybe!
  6. Most of our clients also now use our online payment or automatic recurring payments. Not much hits our mail box.
  7. Since we strive to build community, our marketing is focused in “pods” in a square mile or two radius. This reduces the miles driven in any given day as our sales person is meeting the local businesses to attend our monthly education programs, held in the same neighborhood.
  8. Of course we do the usual stuff like recycle office paper, use refillable ink in our printer, and buy recycled paper.
  9. Even though I love printed books, I now also buy books on Audible to listen to while traveling and get books on my Nook to read.
  10. If the client agrees, I opt for a phone meeting so neither one of us has to leave our offices and spend money on overpriced coffee!

What have you done to reduce your footprint, either at home or at the office? Would love to hear some creative ideas!