A New Way to Green Up Your Office

Single-sided printers are a major eco-office complaint.

Photo: George Doyle / Getty Images

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Does this describe you? You recycle, save energy and conserve water at home, but once you get to work, it feels like stepping into a parallel universe, where waste is the norm.

The Energy Star program has a solution, or at least a toolbox you can take to work to help reduce energy waste at the office.

The new Energy Star @ Work Web site shows you where most offices can save energy. Many, like shutting blinds on hot sunny days, turning off lights and computer equipment when not in use, or swapping out old incandescent bulbs for efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, are the same strategies you'd use at home; others, like investing in an Energy Star water cooler or a three-in-one copier-fax-scanner, are particular to the office environment.

Because employees typically have less unilateral decision-making power at work, as compared to home, the new site also explains how to build an argument for change by developing a "Green Team" to study energy use and make recommendations to management.

Remember the phrase from that motivational poster in the break room (Energy Star offers new energy-related posters, too, by the way): A dollar saved is a dollar earned. And if you're the one earning your company that extra dollar, you ought to be able to use that success to argue for a few dollars of your own, next time you're up for a raise.

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