Starting Monday, desktop and laptop computers and monitors of any make will also be accepted at Staples’ customer service desks during store hours, but for a $10 fee for each large item.

It is about time that someone did this.  It is a hassle to use local recycling due to the time they are open and it is a trip that you have to go out of your way for.  Therefore, we end up stock piling lots of old equipment and then doing a mass drop off.  Since we already buy supplies from Staples and it is right around the corner it just got easier.

I hope that others will follow.

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What’s the Big Deal?
A greener workplace can mean a lighter ecological footprint, a healthier and more productive place to work, and good news for the bottom line. Whether you’re the boss or the employee, whether your office is green already or still waiting to see the light, some practical steps can lay the groundwork for a healthy, low-impact workspace.

They include a Top 10 List so I thought it would be an interesting exercise to do an honest self examination to see how we stack up here at Pelago.

Here is my assessment of how we are doing and where we can improve.

1. More work, less energy

We tend to have our computers set to save energy pretty good, but we do not utilize smart energy strips right now. If we spent a few hours looking around at our office we definitely could cut back our energy consumption more. All in all we tend to do a pretty good job here. I give us a B.

2. Digitize

We do pretty good here. We don’t print much at all except when necessary. Our contracts are our primary printed item. We try to send our invoices in digital format as much as we can. With Intervals everything is digital and we committed to not mailing anything to our customers. There really isn’t a reason to. All invoices are electronic and to date we haven’t used any paper for promotional materials except for business cards. I give us an A.

3. Don’t be a paper pusher

We recycle and reuse boxes as much as we can. Unfortunately our double sided printer jams like crazy. I’d give us an A.

4. Greening the commute

One Pelago employee rides his bike to work 80% of the time and everyone can work from home as much as they like. Three of our employees work out of the office at least one day per week. For those of us that do drive, we definitely could do a better of car pooling and using public transit. I give us a B+ here.

5. Green sleeves

This is an area that we definitely can improve upon. I don’t think many of us deeply consider the materials in the clothes we buy. I give us a D here.

6. Work from home

I just mentioned this one above. This is definitely an option for everyone that works at Pelago. It can be a little tricky depending on your job function, but this is part of our culture for work/life reasons as much as cutting traffic time. I’d give us an A.

7. Use green materials

We do a pretty good here with print cartridges, cleaning materials, etc. I give us a B.

8. Redesign the workspace

We have a lot of natural light, but we need to do a better job with the types of lights we use and with energy use in general. We live in a pretty moderate climate, but our monthly energy use if higher than we would like it to be. We are actively investigation our Air Conditioning system to see if we can make improvements. I give us a B-.

9. Lunch time

We tend to either eat out or order in. Obviously when we order in we are paper wasters. I give us a C.

10. Get others in on the act

We have been in business for seven years at Pelago and I think we are finally getting around to owning up to our responsibilites and making conscientious decisions. Sharing of our journey to be good stewards is finally starting to take shape, but I don’t think we have thoroughly articulated our commitments well. It is definitely in the background more with our group. I give us a B-.

All in all I give us a B/B-. Some areas we do a really good job, but other areas are moving more to the front of our minds.

Feel free to check yourself to see how you are doing. It’s definitely a useful mental exercise. The areas we need to work on are much more clear to me now.

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Google: Google’s Mountain View headquarters are getting a 1.6 megawatt system. Most will be installed over parking lots but others will be on buildings and raw land. It is said to generate enough power to feed 30% of that structures needs, or the equivalent of 1000 homes (or roughly 30 homes Al Gore size)

-Braden

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Although I have always heard about “going green”, I am just learning about the benefits and possibilities. The majority of our team already knows more than I did in this area, but I am enjoying the learning process.

I just recently went to order some new marketing materials and paper products. I asked about “environmentally healthy” products and was shown a few “dusty” catalogues of products. While having to wait twice as long and pay twice as much, we went “as green as you can.” I will update later with more info and final results. We are excited to pay a bit more and do less damage overall.

-Steve

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Our great digital cards serve a greater good. We support environmental and social justice nonprofits because we want to make a positive impact on the world. We donate 10% of the membership fee to the Nonprofit Partner of our member’s choice.

Learn more about Three Leaf Cards.

-Michael

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