By Barbara Kessler

Worried about the stacks of duplicated reports and reprinted Power Points that get passed around at meetings? Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. But as companies assess the carbon impact of their activities, the paper-choked meeting is becoming an issue, and a UK company is in the wings with the solution: an electronic device called MeetingPod.

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By John DeFore

More and more corporate emails these days end with text blurbs urging the recipient not to print messages out unless absolutely necessary. Hard copies of documents are a must in some instances, of course, but they’re becoming less and less necessary thanks to some efforts to finally make good on the computer [...]

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By Catherine Girardeau

Let’s face it: Solo car commuters increase both traffic congestion and a city’s carbon footprint.

In San Francisco, those gas-hogging lone drivers soon will be get a clear message to switch to greener forms of transportation, such as buses, train transit and van pools. Earlier this month, the city preliminarily approved a commuter measure requiring medium- and large-size city employers to promote — or even pay for — public transit or vanpools for their commuting employees.

It’s likely that many more American cities will follow San Francisco’s lead, particularly those cities that have signed on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (USCPA), and pledged to reduce global warming pollution in their cities by 7 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012. They will likely be scrambling to usher commuters from their cars and SUV’s and onto mass transit lines, an immediate and proven way of reducing urban smog.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was an early adopter of the USCPA and the city has an ambitious climate action plan, so it’s no surprise that on August 5, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a commuter measure that would require many city employers to promote public transit or vanpools for their commuting employees. The Commuter Benefits ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, would give San Francisco employers with more than 20 workers three options: pay for employees’ transit passes or vanpools; provide door-to-door shuttle or vanpools, or tap into the federal Commuter Checks program, which allows employees to create pretax commuter accounts.

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By Shermakaye Bass
Not terribly long ago, the idea of “telecommuting” conjured a Jetsonian image of people traveling at warp-speed to and from the office. It was the future; the exception, not the norm.
But now, according to statistics from private industry, federal agencies and states like Connecticut, telecommuting is an idea whose time has finally, and [...]

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By John DeFore

All right-thinking computer users want their gear to be put to the best use — handed down to others, resold, recycled — when they’re done with it. But many are dissuaded by nagging concerns like, If I donate my computer to Goodwill, is some miscreant going to unearth the personal data [...]

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By John DeFore
You don’t have to take the tree huggers’ word for it — now a leading source of information on commercial real estate has demonstrated that greener building practices not only make sense, but earn dollars as well: The CoStar Group, an info-broker that tracks data on more than 2.3 million properties, has released [...]

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By John DeFore
Today business-supply giant Office Depot joined the ranks of big-box retailers using their weight to steer customers, however incrementally, in a greener direction. The retailer announced “Office Depot Green,” which judging from the company’s press release would put a useful twist on eco-friendly retailing by applying a uniform brand (as seen [...]

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By Harriet Blake
Most of us know to recycle our ink cartridges, but did you know that some stores offer refills for your original cartridges while you wait?
Hundreds of Office Max, Office Depot and Walgreen stores have set up kiosks where customers can have their cartridges refilled at the store, eliminating the need for recycling.
Office [...]

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By Barbara Kessler
In many places in the United States, unless you’re locked into a city utility or cooperative, you have some ability to choose your energy supplier.
This freedom, conversely, means that energy companies are on the hunt for you, the consumer, often with a flurry of special offers, rebates and claims designed to catch [...]

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By Barbara Kessler
If you’re looking to upgrade your home office, then you’ve probably already realized that this is a great opportunity to green your workspace and put some hard-earned cash back in your pocket at the same time.
Computers and printers are getting increasingly energy efficient and the ENERGY STAR program stands ready to help you [...]

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