Green Tech Girl
The Digital Marketer and Make it Green Girl team up to green your technology.
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Green Tech Girl
Hi there, Make it Green Girl here, with some more Quick and Dirty Tips for an Earth Friendly Life.
“Going Green” can be a challenge, especially when it comes to modern conveniences. I teamed up with my fellow Quick and Dirty Tipster The Digital Marketer to talk about green technology.
I’ve heard a lot about how technology can be terrible for our planet, but no matter how much I want to do the right thing, I don’t want to get rid of all my tech tools
Reducing Your Devices
Lately, I’ve been looking ways to work just a little bit greener.
I’ve heard that printers can be a problem for the environment and learned from a spokesperson at Lexmark, a printer manufacturer, that there are many simple ways to reduce waste when printing:
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Make sure you use high yield inkjet supplies and recycled paper.
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Go with an all-in-one device that prints, faxes, scans and copies to reduce the number of energy consuming equipment you have.
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Network and share your all-in-one device with the rest of the family or with staff to cut down on the need for more devices.
I have also found a local business called Cartridge World that takes all my empty inkjet cartridges and provides refilled inkjet cartridges at a very good price so I not only contribute saving the planet but, save a little cash as well…
So, Make-It-Green Girl, what other tips would you recommend for business owners to go green without having to go without all of their technology?
Make-It-Green Girl Says
Thanks, Digital Marketer! Technology can definitely help you go green. A great example is Google’s mobile phone interface for Google Maps, so you can use a mobile phone to get directions instead of printing out the page from Google Maps.
Hewlett-Packard has also released software for PC users to clip wasted space, copy and paste multiple documents, webpages, and pictures into one print file, and check the number of pages and what’s on them before you print. That way you escape the wasted blank space at the end of the pages, and you can delete content you don’t really need printed, like webpage logos or ads.
Another Quick and Dirty Tip is to just make sure to change your default margins on your word processor to something skinnier, so more words fit on one page.
Perhaps the paperless society dream has all but died out, but you can still make use of technology to power your business without paper. Investigate online meeting systems and document storage sites to interface with clients and colleagues. You can stop sending paper copies back and forth and keep track of electronic copy better with a program that will track the reviewers name and revisions and the date they made them. Some even have calender or scheduling software to let people know when meetings are or when critical items are due, so you can save time and the paper it takes to do all those things without integrated technology solutions.
Saving the Planet Can Also Save Money
A great way to save paper is to print less! OK, Green Girl, we know that, but how? One thing most smaller business and home businesses can’t afford is a double-sided printer or copier. So start yourself a one-side clean tray in your inbox or by the phone. Then, when you need to jot something down, print something on the other side for the road, or make paper-mache, that stack will be neat and organized where you need it.
Don’t forget that if you are running a full office, with computer, telephone fax machine, printer scanner copier, and shredder, you’ll need a lot of power to run all these techno-solutions. When you’re not working, make sure to turn all of them completely off and up-plug them! Even turned off or in standby mode, your labor saving devices can be sucking power from you without doing anything useful. To learn more, check out Make it Green Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips number 2, Little Vampires
Resources
Lexmark – lexmark
Shoeboxed – shoeboxed
Google Docs – Google Docs
HP SmartWeb Program – HP SmartWeb Program