What is a Green Office?

(from Coop America and Business)

 A green office is a smarter and better office. It is ecological (using nontoxic, recycled, environmentally friendly products and supplies); efficient (using as little energy and other resources as possible, and putting out the smallest amount of waste as possible) and healthy (with as little visual, noise and physical pollution as possible).
For example, a green office uses energy-efficient lighting and office equipment and relies on natural light as much as possible. It recycles everything from paper to printer cartridges and encourages e-mail and tele-commuting. Ideally, it is built from the ground up, inside and out, using nontoxic, durable, recyclable/reusable flooring, carpets, wall coverings, paints, and furnishings.

 As a result, a green office saves money, is a more pleasant place in which to work, and goes easier on the environment. A green office can be a workplace of any type or size, from a corporate headquarters to a small accounting firm or advertising agency. Green offices can also be found in homes, schools, churches and temples or shopping malls.

 Let’s say that even if your office is already built or that your company rents its office space and doesn’t have the money for a green renovation. Should you give up the idea of greening? Absolutely not. Just because you can’t be the greenest on the block doesn’t mean that you can’t make some pretty big differences. The most important thing is to do what you can. And anything that you can do to improve even your own recycling habits at work is a lot better than doing nothing at all. Every piece makes a difference.

 How a Green Office Helps Business

 Offices use an enormous amount of electricity, paper, water, plastic and other resources — and spend an tremendous amount of money for them. Fortunately, smarter products and technologies are available, and they can be used to build, furnish, and operate better buildings and offices. Healthy and efficient offices save money for your company, benefit the environment by reducing pollution and the demand for resources and can make employees feel better physically.

 Here are some examples:

 Boeing cut its lighting energy use up to 90 percent. These changes gave Boeing a two-year payback, a 53 percent return on investment.

 Lockheed-Martin built a new design and development facility that resulted in a $300,000-400,000 savings on energy bills every year. In addition, employee productivity went up 15 percent and absenteeism dropped by the same amount. In one year, the drop in absenteeism alone covered the extra $2 million the company paid for the new energy system.

read entire article at www.coopamerica.org/business/sgo_whatis.htm