One of the best things about green technology and the advances being made within its field is that function no longer means an ugly form. There are lots of beautiful and ecologically friendly ways to dress up your home, reduce your energy costs and reduce your carbon footprint all at the same time. Heck, there are lots of options for “greening” up your desk! Here are a few you might think about.
1. A Plant
Okay, this one is pretty obvious. Adding some greenery to your desk will dress up your work space with literal green. It will also improve the air quality of the air close to your desk. The plant doesn’t have to be large—a small flower or flowering plant should be sufficient. Of course, if you want to go big, that’s okay too: small trees and carefully pruned and tended shrubs are also great additions to your office space. They’re a little hard to keep on your desk though.
2. A LED Light
Switch out your current desk lamp bulb (and any overheads) for LED lights. LED lights aren’t super cheap (the average LED price for a single bulb is about $20) but they last around 50,000 hours so even if you work full time and never take a vacation day, that bulb should last more than four years (almost five, really) before you have to change it. You can compare and contrast the savings and buy bulbs from Energy Earth. Buying these bulbs reduces waste—fewer bulbs needing to be changed. It also reduces your energy consumption by as much as 60%. This means a reduced power bill as well, which is helpful if you are working at home!
3. Solar Power Device Charger
The great thing about a solar powered device charger should be obvious: it doesn’t need to be plugged in to an outlet. Solar powered device chargers have batteries within them that are solar charged and powerful enough to charge several devices at once. In addition to saving you money on your electric bill, you also free up at least one wall our power strip outlet.
4. Your Own Beverage Container
This can be a reusable coffee mug or a lined metal water bottle. There are lots of places to buy these mugs, bottles and cups. Using your own coffee mug or water bottle reduces the amount of waste produced by your office and dresses up your desk at the same time. The great thing about using your own mug is that if it is made for travel, you can use it in coffee shops and (often) get a discount off of your total!
5. An iPad or other Tablet
Using an iPad or Tablet instead of post its or a notebook reduces the amount of paper that you use personally. This reduces the money your office will spend on supplies and the amount of waste produced by your office. Sure you can recycle the paper you use but it’s simply better not to use it in the first place. You could even take this one step further by encouraging the company you work for to go paperless.
These are five different ways that you can “green up” your work space and they are just the beginning. How many other ways can you think of to go green at work?
Leave a Reply