Office Politics Now Include Going Green

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

Photo: George Doyle / Getty Images

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Will not recycling become as socially damaging to your reputation as lighting up a cigarette indoors or pouring a stiff drink for your pregnant friend? According to a new poll by Harris Interactive (for the Xerox Corporation), when it comes to the office, this may not be too far off.

The new survey of 1,569 U.S. and Canadian office workers, released today, found some thought-provoking trends. Almost 40 percent of U.S. respondents claimed to be irritated when co-workers print unnecessary junk pages, while 37 percent decried the fact that colleagues leave lights on without reason.

Perhaps not surprisingly in a social movement that has long been popular among women, 91 percent of U.S. females identified themselves as being more eco-conscious than their male counterparts (86 percent). Of younger U.S. workers (aged 18-34), 27 percent ranked themselves as "extremely" or "very green," versus the next generation of employees (aged 35-44), which clocked in at 17 percent.

Patricia A. Calkins, vice president of Environment, Health and Safety at Xerox, told the press, "As this survey found, it takes a few small steps to make a big difference. Step number one: use the technology available in the office to cut back on paper use, reduce waste and reduce energy consumption. That can mean simply setting the office printers to default to two-sided printing, which cuts office paper use in half. Or, replace single function printers and copiers with multifunction systems, decreasing energy use."

And now, the results:

The top ten environmental pet peeves among U.S. office workers:

1. Mindless printing resulting in increased waste (40%)
2. Leaving lights on (37%)
3. Lack of recycling bins (33%)
4. Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter (29%)
5. Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc. (27%)
6. Coworkers not recycling (27%)
7. Coworkers not printing double-sided when they can (24%)
8. Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing (24%)
9. Having to store paper copies of existing, electronic files (24%)
10. Leaving computer on and not powering down when going home (23%)

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