"Green" - Office Edition - Help us improve...

[Fingolfin269]

(FYI, what you may or may not think about the "green" movement is not the topic of discussion here.)

We are looking for ways to make things a little more "green" around the office. It's a fairly large office with hundreds of employees and as far as I can tell we have done most of the obvious ones. For example:

1) Recycle Bins are set up around the office
2) People turn off fans, desk lighting, monitors, PCs, etc. when they leave for the day
3) Reduced lighting around the office as much as possible (every other light on in some areas, televisions turned off other than when corporate messages being transmitted, etc.)

I'm really just looking for any creative, cost efficient, ideas some of you may have seen around your own offices. Maybe even ideas that took you by surprise through just how awesome they are but most importantly ideas that you've seen to actually be effective. And it doesn't necessarily have to be anything totally new and totally innovative. Anything that led to more people using the recycling bins would be a prime example of a great idea.

Thanks!

 

[MikeMike]

change the recycle bins to count the number of items inserted... make the garbage cans do the same...

visually display this number...

 

[sdifox]

print quota

 

[Fingolfin269]

print quota

Is this done in your office on a per userid basis? Functional group?

 

[sdifox]

Is this done in your office on a per userid basis? Functional group?

functional group charged back to account code.

 

[PottedMeat]

print quota

what's wrong, don't like people printing out all their emails or textbook sized manuals? :awe:

 

[sdifox]

what's wrong, don't like people printing out all their emails or textbook sized manuals? :awe:

I like to pore over the print log.

 

[Ns1]

pilot has come out with a line of green pens/pencils

the reps came by and gave us all free samples.

The friction erasable pens and dry erase markers are pretty badass.

http://www.pilotbegreen.us/

cost effective because they are refillable. dry erase markers never dry out.

 

[BoomerD]

Recycle bins...do you recycle your print and copy paper?
Seems to be a big waste in every office I've ever been to. Confidential stuff can usually be shredded before recycling.

Change all lighting to more energy-efficient types. Even the overhead fluorescent fixtures can be made more energy efficient.

How about the heating/cooling systems for the office? Are they serviced regularly to make sure they're in good operating condition? Are the necessary filters changed in a timely manner?

What about windows? Are they energy efficient? Do they have any type of reflective film or coating to reduce how much sunlight penetrates and heats the office? (also helps with winter heating costs)

 

[Phoenix86]

print quota

In addition to this, examine you're billing department's printing. We recently noticed they were -trashing- 1 to 2 reams of paper per billing office per day. That's ~20 reams per day...