The Green Office Supply Trend Marches On
I think I should note for anyone that is not aware that I sell office supplies. It’s my primary job, I own a small independent office supply company in St. Louis, MO called Exec Business Products. I say this only so you know where my point of view is coming from. I am not trying to sell anything to you. (Although I guess one shameless plug would not hurt anyone: if you are sick of the big chains or like giving independent businesses a chance, I have the same name brand toners and inks, at the same or better prices, or my own line of guaranteed compatibles, and I can get them virtually anywhere in the continental US the next day via UPS Ground. We are rebuilding our ecommerce site, so it is not up quite yet, but you can email me here for now. Anyway…)
Every day for my job and for this blog I scan the news of the industry. I continue to be amazed and pleasantly surprised at the momentum of the “green movement” in office and printer supplies, and as long as the trend is intact, I will keep writing about it.
I came across some interesting statistics about office supply usage, from David Sobel at RISMedia.
It is estimated you can save 20% on paper by printing on both sides of the sheet. This can save $70 per employee, per year or $7000 in just a 100 employee office! An employee in a typical business generates 1.5 pounds of waste paper per day, most of which is NOT recycled.
Changing to more efficient light bulbs can achieve 50-80% savings, and they last 10X longer. Lighting is generally 29% of the energy use in an office.
Turn down (or up) the thermostat. Heating and cooling office space is responsible for 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. and it eats more than 70% of electricity usage.
Use power strips for all equipment that can be turned off at night in your home, as well as your offices. 40 watts of energy can be lost for each piece of equipment remaining plugged in, but not in use.
Office equipment typically uses about 16% of energy costs. If every US computer and monitor were turned off at night, the nation could shut down eight large power stations and avoid emitting 7 million tons of CO2 every year.
I always find these kinds of statistics amazing and fun to read. I will post more as I find them. If you have any tips please leave a comment.
Thanks,
