Few of us know that while we think our machines are sleeping, they are actually leeching 25% of the power that they consume from us. We also don’t often think about the fact that more than half the trees chopped down in the world are used for paper.
In an ecologically challenged world, just these two facts make a compelling argument for turning to green printing. Not printing in green ink, but printing in an ecologically sustainable manner. How do you do that?
In the past, it seemed like anyone who suggested recycling or using greener methods of production was called a tree hugging hippie. However, in today’s society, that’s no longer true. Recycling programs exist in almost every major city, and businesses around the world are looking into greener, more environmentally friendly ways of producing, shipping, and advertising their products. To many, though, going green is a behind the scenes tactic – surely it can’t affect business that much, right? Wrong. Consumers, especially environmentally conscious ones, often will support businesses that go green over those that don’t. Sometimes, they are even willing to pay a bit more if it means saving the environment!
Boosting your green image, however, can be somewhat difficult. How can you go about learning exactly what methods to implement to make your business more environmentally friendly? Research can help bring these methods to light, as can looking at practices implemented by competing businesses. However, their practices are not always apparent, and they may not be willing to share their methods with you.
The food sitting in tins, bottles, cardboard boxes and plastic bags in your cupboards and fridges can have a huge impact on your family’s carbon emissions. Processed convenience food, is the answer for many people who need to get around the problem of a hectic lifestyle, but it has a huge disadvantage; the amount of energy required to produce it. In addition, the amount of additives, preservatives and artificial colours and flavourings contained in a lot of processed food, although being reduced by some manufacturers, is still a consideration when choosing what to buy.
Fruit and vegetables are an important part of most people’s diets, and although we all strive to hit our 5 a day quota, cooking from scratch is not possible for everybody. The fresh fruit and vegetables we buy also have important considerations however, in terms of their production and origins. Cheaply produced fruit and vegetables are usually grown intensively on a large scale, therefore likely using harmful pesticides and fertilisers to make up for the goodness lost from the soil through the intensive processes being used to grow it. In addition, the food miles our veg has travelled is an issue that can’t be ignored. Often supermarkets carry apples shipped in from New Zealand even when there are British apples on the trees in UK orchards. Where goods only grow abroad, such as bananas, pineapples and coconuts, this is obviously unavoidable unless people choose to stop eating these fruits, which will never be a practical solution to the problem. However there are still steps we can tale to reduce the carbon emissions of these items, as well as a large number of other items on the weekly shopping list.
Free range is on the up, with popularity growing for both meat and egg production across the UK. Even the country’s supermarkets and businesses are getting in on the act, and about time too. But there is a concern that free range might not be all it’s cracked up to be, at least not in the long term if some revisions to current standards are rolled out across Britain’s poultry farms.
A number of UK supermarkets have made the switch and stopped selling eggs from caged birds. In addition, an increasing level of support is being shown by businesses and corporations, who have made commitments to chicken welfare by banning the use of battery eggs in the production of their food, and this is certainly a feather in their caps. Hellmann’s have switched to only using free range eggs in their mayonnaise, Little Chef, who use 13 million eggs every year, and many other companies including the BBC, Channel 4, John Lewis and Debenhams have been recognised for cutting caged eggs from the menu.
Compassion in World Farming, who have been handing out ‘Good Egg Awards’ to congratulate those who make commitments to animal welfare to companies for 3 years now, including those mentioned above, have also been involved in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s flagship free range chicken campaign, ‘Chicken Out!’. CIWF was started 40 years ago by a farmer who was disgusted by the standards and conditions inflicted on animals under modern intensive rearing processes, and as well as working to promote free range, they work to put a stop to all cruel intensive factory farming methods.
When aiming to reduce your carbon footprint, there are many aspects of life where changes can be made to start making a difference, especially where our workplace routines are concerned. One simple area highlighted in part 1 of our guide to a greener workplace is with regard to paper-saving measures that can be put in place; most of which are simple steps to creating a greener office that also have both time and money saving advantages on their side as well as their obvious environmental impact reducing benefits.
Making inroads into policies regarding paper usage is only one area that changes can be made to improve the green credentials of your business however. Everybody knows the importance of saving energy, and with a little thought and the implementation of revised work practices and habits, everybody can do their bit to help reduce the reliance their workplace has on fossil fuels and minimise the amount of energy wasted each year.
Everybody knows the importance of saving energy at home, but when you consider the average amount of time spent at work is 37 hours a week, it becomes easy to see the huge amount of capacity for energy saving and being greener in the workplace.
Although many companies have policies of corporate responsibility and tell people about their environmental commitments, there is also a large amount of companies currently doing little or nothing to reduce their environmental impact. But it’s not just down to employers to be making changes and green decisions; employees can make changes to their daily routine and actions in the workplace by recycling office waste and reducing the amount they contribute to their company’s carbon footprint.
When it comes to offices jobs, there is so much electrical equipment buzzing away all day, from computers to fax machines, photocopiers to air conditioning, and many many lightbulbs humming from at least 8am-5pm and often on into the evening. However not every job is in a building of rows of computers and office equipment. Most places of work do have common areas where changes can be made however; simple changes that require minimal effort, in order to reduce the impact the business has on the planet we live on.
Most people are familiar with the sounds of Spring Watch announcing its return to TV each year, with its hidden cameras keeping an eye on the antics of the creatures living in and around the farm site in the south of England. With the glimpses of sun and signs of spring, we decided that we should do our own bit of Spring Watching. Well, not in the sense of Bill Oddie keeping tabs on frog action in the local pond, or Kate Humble spying on badgers, but that is an idea for the future perhaps. Looking around in the hedgerows and gardens, there really is the sense that spring has finally sprung. Of course we won’t be safe in the knowledge that the frosts are gone for a good month yet, but everywhere you look there are many varieties of daffodils nodding their heads in the breeze (perhaps wind would be more accurate, especially for how breezy today has been!) and crocuses opening their petals to the sun, in shades of lavender and yellow, white and deep purple.
Apart from the colourful displays of spring bulbs decorating the towns and villages, I was really pleased over the weekend to find a cluster of frogspawn tucked away in the corner of the pond. It’s good to know that some of the local frogs managed to escape the clutches of the many patrolling cats of the neighbourhood! I always think there’s nothing like the colour and new life of spring to make you feel happier; whether it’s the anticipation of watching those tiny black dots grow bigger, then escape their jelly homes to test the water as tadpoles, until their little limbs develop and they seek out dry land; or the joyous bounding energy of new-born lambs dancing across the fields, or even down to the first unfurling leaves of a willow tree that has stood naked all winter with its whip-like branches hanging about its trunk. (more…)
Buying a new outfit or three is most girls’ (and a fair few men’s) idea of fun, but although throw-away fashion can satisfy most budgets, the implications of fast fashion and keeping the prices low for consumers often cost the environment a great deal more. Every single year in the UK, over 900 million items of clothing are cast aside and typically find their way straight into landfill.
One way of preventing such a waste of textile products in the UK is to recycle unwanted clothes. There are a number of options available to people to enable them to do this, such as selling them on at car boot sales or on eBay, putting them in recycling bins, such as those for textile recycling organisation TRAID, or donating them to charity shops. This ensures a new life for clothes, shoes and other textiles, as well as many other unwanted items, and also reduces the ridiculous amount of waste being shipped off to landfill each year.
Supporting charity shops also helps raise money for a wealth of causes, from third world charities like Oxfam, children’s charities such as Barnardos and NSPCC, animal organisations, both national charities like PDSA and local organisations that support local animal homes and shelters, charities supporting the elderly and infirm, and many cancer and hospice shops such as Douglas MacMillan in the Midlands, Marie Curie Cancer Care and The Donna Louise Trust. And in addition to knowing that donations given and the money you spend supporting these charities will work hard to make a difference to many lives around the world, your money will go further and your green credentials get a welcome boost. (more…)
So Sainsbury’s have become the latest supermarket to remove carrier bags from their tills. This adds their name to a growing list, along with Asda and Co-Operative Food, and what a good idea! Take the bags away, and it will encourage people to use their own bags instead! Well… that, unfortunately, is not always quite the way it works out, and I’m sure I’m not the only one to have noticed this.
Just this week, I was picking up a few bits and pieces from my local Sainsbury’s and heard announced over the tannoy, “Sainsbury’s will no longer be offering plastic bags at the tills in order to encourage customers to use their own bags. Bags will be available if you need them – just ask the cashier at the till”.
“What a good idea!” I said to my partner at the time. “Sainsbury’s’ environmental policies keep getting better!” (more…)
Now I’m not talking here about Tesco becoming telepathic or Asda having the ability to fly. I’m talking Super Powers in the sense of World War II and supremacy on the scale of America or Russia.
Everyone knows the names of the big Supermarket chains, and even the smaller ones, but that’s by the by. Most of us depend on (or think we do) at least one of these giants to provide our food, fuel our cars, replace electrical goods when they decide they have had enough of this cruel world, and even protect us against all manner of things with house, car and travel insurance to name but a few.
So. Here is my big question. In a world where resources are running out, global warming is looming on the horizon, and people’s awareness of issues such as animal welfare, food miles and genetic modification are at a level where they want to see action and action fast, couldn’t somebody with the publicly known wealth of an organisation like Tesco or Asda, or even some of the oil companies to broaden the argument, use some of their wealth to help the rest of us? Let’s face it, I know it’s not going to happen because it can’t, but if everybody stopped buying from supermarkets, their profit would fall fast. They have only made it because of us. (more…)
