Work Together for a Future Eco-Friendly Office!

Having an eco-friendly office can be very simple. It will eventually bring great savings for any company as it will cut down on waste and the conservation of resources will cut down on office expenses. This process does require teamwork. The implementation of "green" ideas provided by some federal institutions and eco-friendly advocates can be applied to most companies work practices. The following are some helpful ideas to bring an eco-friendly office into any company's future!

Power Conservation

Form a habit of turning off any equipment that is not being used. For instance, shutting down computers when they are not in use will eventually reduce the energy consumption of a business by up to 25 percent; doing this at the end of each work day will save an additional 50 percent. Turning off equipment can be easily accomplished by plugging all desk equipment into one power strip so that all devices can be turned off when leaving the area. With one device, all of the equipment that is plugged into that strip can be turned off.

Paper Conservation

Employees should be encouraged to communicate with e-mail and read the messages on the screen, printing only important messages. Utilize both sides of the paper when printing if possible and use paper with a high recycle content.

Reduce paper waste by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary; send important documents directly from the computer whenever possible to eliminate the necessity to print a hard copy.

Eliminate paper files by converting them into electronic files; this will reduce storage space, and make it easier to search for a document on the computer. This will certainly save a large amount of time than searching for a document in a filing cabinet.

Equipment Upgrades

If the budget allows, upgrading old equipment to newer models will increase energy efficiency. Replace old CRT monitors with LCD or LED monitors that are energy efficient and save on desk space.

A copier consumes more energy than any other piece of office equipment. Upgrading to a copier with duplexing capabilities and printing on both sides of the paper whenever possible will help cut down on energy usage as well as the usage of paper.

Water Conservation

Be sure to shut off faucets securely and not leave any dripping. So much water is wasted this way that as little as one drop per second could add up to as much as 2,642 gallons per year.

Displacement toilet dams can be installed in the toilet water reservoirs that will displace about four liters of water every time the water release valve is open. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones in the tank will allow for a huge reduction in water usage per year as well.

Buy Locally

Whenever possible, search for products and services that are more "green" within the local community, since supplies from a provider that is a considerable distance away will use more energy in transporting the product.

Before replacing any office items, be sure to initially consider if repairs can be done. When planning to purchase new furniture, see if the existing furniture can be refurbished; that would be less expensive than buying new.

Implementing an eco-friendly office should be done gradually so that it does not have too much of an effect on normal employee routines. Instead, small changes such as a reduction in the amount of power, water, paper, and other resources being consumed can really make an immediate difference in company expenses. Then working together to have an eco-friendly office can be in every company's future!

Is Your Future Smart House at Risk to Hackers?

For those of us who now have SmartGrid electrical meters on our homes, we realize that in the future we will have more tools to help us monitor our electricity usage. When General Motors, Honda, Toyota, and Ford started putting in real-time gas gauges which showed drivers their miles per gallon based on whatever they were doing at the time, drivers immediately noticed that they were attempting to keep that number as highest possible, almost as if they were playing a videogame, therefore increasing their miles per gallon. Obviously when gasoline in the United States is four dollars per gallon it makes sense to do this.

Now then, in the future with a SmartGrid electricity meter on your home, with a control panel, you will be able to see the difference in your electricity usage when you have a TV on in the other room that you're not using, or an extra set of lights on. Indeed, I imagine, as do analysts who study consumer conservation for energy, that this will make it impact on the amount of electricity we use in the United States. It could actually drive the electricity usage from the consumer markets down 10%. That might indeed stave off the need to build more energy generation plants in the future.

This also means that we will need to build fewer coal-fired plants, and therefore we will also put less CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Now then, this article isn't about global warming alarmism, because I don't believe in that. Rather I'd like to talk about these new features in your future smart house. And I'd like to discuss the risks from our electrical grid being hacked, and poisonous software being introduced from the point of consumption through the SmartGrid, or someone entering through your smart house's Wi-Fi system, perhaps a hacker putting in a virus, malware, or monitoring software without you knowing it.

There was an interesting article in the USA Today by Byron Acohido titled "Hackers Ooze into Printers, Copiers - Digital Thieves Fine Entry through Office Equipment," published on August 5, 2011. Who is to say in the future that hackers won't come in through your refrigerator, your washing machine, your dishwasher, your microwave oven, or your garbage disposal and hack into your smart house? Now then, on August 16, 2011 there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal this one by Ian Sheer which was titled "H-P Looks to Kitchens, Cars" and the article stated;

"H-P hopes that webOS on appliances and in cars will create an ecosystem of devices around it."

Now then, this sounds all well and good, however it better be safe, and if someone hacks into your house, the same way they hack into your computer peripherals, then no one is safe from a hack attack, and the hackers are coming to a home near you. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,500 articles by August 24th or 25th will be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..