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 The HOME OFFICE challenge.

There are over 4.6 million homes in Ontario, and a growing number of them have a home office. 

Whether for personal use, a student at school, tele-commuting, or working from home, the home office is an important part of the modern home.

Done right, it's a great way to restore some balance to your life, reduce time spent stuck in traffic, create a great workspace, and help reduce your environmental footprint.

Thanks to Staples Business Depot, who recently commissioned an Angus Reid poll on home business practices, we know that...

  • Almost half (47%) of Canadian households have at least one broken or out-of-date cellular phone in need of disposal;
  • A similar number (47%) had dead batteries, with five being the average;
  • 45% had chargers needing disposal, while 41% had outmoded or broken cameras and 37% had empty ink cartridges;
  • When informed that Staples Business Depot will properly dispose of these items, almost nine in ten (88%) said they would bring them in.

Clearly, there is a lot of special waste resulting from home offices and home electronics that need safe disposal.  The good news is that people will make the effort to dispose of waste products properly, if there are convenient options.
 

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We'd like to say it's easy, but the truth is you have to dig a little to get beyond recycled plastic containers and 30% recycled-content copier paper.  Here's where you can find the environmental commitment and green products for some of the major office supply stores:

If you're looking for a guide to greening the office, you can order the Harmony Foundation's Workplace Guide ($25 plus postage and handling). 

Here are a number of quick tips...

Save Energy

 

 Use an energy-efficient monitor and consider a laptop as your next computer.  Laptops use about one-tenth the electricity of a desktop computer;
 
Plug your office equipment (computer, monitor, speakers, printer, scanner, etc.) into a power bar that can be turned off when not in use (a computer running 24 hours a day can use up to $120 worth of electricity every year!);
 
Set your screen saver to “none” or “blank screen”;
 
Switch from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs and turn off all lights when you leave the room;
 
Use natural cooling techniques in the summer, such as shades and fans, instead of air-conditioning. See www.lightenupontario.ca for more electricity conservation tips.

 

Save Trees

 

 Send electronic copies of documents instead of hard copies whenever possible and only print double sided documents;
 
Use recycled and unbleached paper products.  Look for high percentages of Post-Consumer Content and/or for Forest Stewardship Counci (FSC) certified paper;
 
Recycle all waste paper.

 

Reduce Waste and Pollution

 

 Choose reuseable and refillable products instead of disposables (i.e. rechargeable batteries and refillable toner cartridges);
 
Look for water-based correction fluids, pens and markers;
 
Avoid toxic inks and adhesives, and use more all-natural cleaning products;
 
Recycle old cell phones, PDAs, inkjet and toner cartridges and rechargeable batteries at any store that offers a recycling program or through a municipal household hazardous waste program.