BUYING GREEN

Whether you operate a retail store, manufacturing plant, or are a provider of services, every business can reduce its waste and carbon output through purchasing eco-friendly supplies and by adopting green business practices. The main strategies for greening up your business are being diligent in practicing the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. 

Packaging_and_Shipping

Printing

Cleaning_supplies_and_services

Stocking_the_office:_Purchasing_green

Frequently_Asked_Questions

What_are_the_different_degrees_of_recycled_paper?

What_is_the_advantage_of_vegetable_based_ink?

What_are_compostable_disposables?

Compostable_versus_recyclable

Tap_or_bottled_water?

Success_Stories

Packaging and Shipping

Downsize your box.  If a box must be used (bags are preferred) the size and weight of the container will have a dramatic effect on the environmental impact of your shipment. The optimum eco-friendly packaging uses the smallest feasible container size, combined with the highest possible recycled cushioning materials.

Biodegradable plastics. For those in the food industry, use take-out containers and utensils made from biodegradable plastics. Some biodegradable plastic companies use renewable sources of energy, for example PHB Industrial in Brazil, who make their plastic from sugar cane, not corn.

Shipping. Consumer shipping, also known as the “logistics” or “express delivery” industry, consumes a great amount of energy and resources in the transport of packages.   
A recent rating of logistics companies in order of their least impact on the environment rated DHL the highest, followed by the US Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx.  DHL introduced the use of reusable legal and express envelopes made from 100% recycled material.

Businesses can avoid waste and save forests with the following practices:

• Use the waste from the paper shredder as additional padding.
• Reuse paper and packaging materials.
• Purchase envelopes, boxes, and wrapping made from recycled materials

Printing

Another important way businesses can go green is by printing on recycled paper and using vegetable based ink. Over the past fifteen years, recycled paper has achieved the brightness and smoothness of non-recycled paper.  Additionally, printing on both sides of the paper reduces the amount of paper used and lessens overall waste.

Unfortunately, vegetable based ink, unlike the vast variety of recycled paper, is not currently available for office copiers and printers.  However, when sourcing a professional printer, ask about if they use vegetable-based ink, which results in better quality and is brighter than petroleum based inks.

Cleaning supplies and services

Office cleaning offers an easy way to be green. Environmental cleaning supplies are readily available and relatively inexpensive.  

Despite their sanitizing qualities, traditional cleaners are rife with chemicals and toxic agents that work against the health of employees and the environment. While low level exposure to these products posts little direct risk, the continued and concentrated exposure for professional cleaners does result in chemical related injuries such as eye, skin, and respiratory irritation. As these cleaners dry, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) evaporate into the air, reduce indoor air quality, and contribute to smog. Furthermore, these chemicals get into the sewer water system, where they accumulate in the bodies of plants and animals, and disrupt their reproductive health.

For occasional small cleaning, choose green household products, which populate home supplies shelves in natural stores, or create your own home-made mixtures. When buying, select more concentrated solutions, thus saving on the packaging. Reuse plastic containers. Common ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, borax, lemon juice, and oil can do virtually any cleaning job. Add natural fragrances for a refreshing scent.  There are several green certification programs existing for cleaning products. One of them was developed by Green Seal, an independent non-profit organization and one of the largest eco-labeling organizations in the U.S. Green Seal has been promoting the use of environmentally responsible products since 1989.

Additional benefits of green products include the following:

• No animal testing
• Packaged in recycled material
• Are biodegradable, and
• Non threatening to pets, children, or adults don’t endanger pets, children, or chemically sensitive adults.

Hire cleaning services that use green cleaners, reusable rags and mops, and a high filtration vacuum cleaner. High filtration using a HEPA filter is an important way to clean the air of particulate matter including toxins and allergens.

Stocking the office: Purchasing green and less

Many items are available made of  recycled content. Items such as recycled paper, unbleached coffee filters, and recycled toilet paper and tissue are recommended. See Replace incandescent light with compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) and light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs to reduce the amount of energy used.  Not only do they reduce energy, they last longer and save landfill space. See Being a Green Business and Conserving Energy.

Purchase reusable items such as pens, pencils, tape dispensers, ink and toner cartridges reduces waste and future purchasing.  

Fact:  1.6 million single-use pens and 15 million pounds of transparency films are discarded in the US each year.

In the break room, switch to reusable cups, plates, and silverware that employees can wash and reuse. If disposables are necessary, switch to recyclable and biodegradable kitchen items made from unwaxed paper or wheat and corn polymers.  Avoid buying single servings of anything such as coffee, creamers, and sweeteners to reduce excess packaging. Rely on filtered tap water instead of bottled water; It is hundreds of times more expensive than tap and has a high environmental impact.

Sourcing from local companies for both office supplies and food items not only boosts your local economy, but also reduces your carbon footprint due to the environmental impact of trucking.  Fair trade coffee from local roasters is available in most cites as are cream and half & half from local dairies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the different degrees of recycled paper?
What is the advantage of vegetable based ink?
What are compostable disposables?
Compostable versus recyclable?
Tap or bottled water?

What are the different degrees of recycled paper?
Nearly every package of recycled paper contains information regarding the percentage and type of recycled material in it. If the label reads “post-consumer content” it means that the material has already been consumed and recycled, completing the recycling loop. If the amount or type of recycled material is not stated, assume it is made of post-industrial material with quantities varying from batch to batch.  See Recycling.

Chlorine processed paper. Chlorine is normally used to bleach pulp and paper and has severe environmental impact, including producing highly dangerous pollutants such as dioxin. Chlorine-free paper is easy to find and has the least impact in paper processing.   An alternative is to purchase “elementary chlorine-free” paper which uses a less harmful chlorine derivative and is usually less expensive.  A third label, “processed chlorine-free,” is essentially the same as chlorine-free, except that it may contain trace amounts of chlorine from previous bleached batches.    

What is the advantage of vegetable based ink?
In vegetable based ink the petroleum base is replaced with corn or soybean oil. This  eliminates the environmental impacts of petroleum while utilizing a renewable resource that has less impact on bays and streams.   In addition, vegetable-based inks contain less volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which get released during printing. VOCs, combined with other pollutants, create ozone and smog.

What are compostable disposables?
Compostable disposables are any products or packaging made with organic material that will decompose with the right mixture of sun, water, and oxygen. Traditionally, only uncoated paper plates, cups, and wrappers were biodegradable, but in recent years petroleum polymer in plastics have been replaced with a starch, plant based polymer.   coming from various plants. A wide variety of plastic-like disposables (PLAs) made from wheat, soy, corn, and potato starches are now available.
 
Compostable versus recyclable?
Compostables take 25-55% less fossil fuels to produce than their petroleum based cousins.  Few PLAs can be composted in a backyard pile, due to the need for high heat.  Because the process requires more heat, most can only be composted in an industrial or municipal center. PLA misplacement in plastic recycling bins creates difficulty for the recycler; PLAs and petroleum-based plastics don’t mix and must be painfully sorted out.  Additionally, there is no indication that PLAs decompose in landfills any faster than plastics.

Thus, before purchasing PLAs, check if your municipal waste disposal system handles compostable material. If not, it may be better to use recyclable materials. However, avoiding disposables and purchasing reusable plates, glasses, cups, and silverware is the best practice.

Tap or bottled water?
Though bottled water is an image of a healthy lifestyle, it couldn’t be worse for the environment. It takes an estimated 47 million gallons of oil annually to bottle water for Americans alone. Only 13% of these bottles are recycled. In 2005, roughly 2 million tons of water bottles were tossed into landfills where it will take them 1,000 years to fully decompose. In Addition, the shipping of bottled water puts thousands of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

People often chose bottled water because of anxiety over the perceived dangers of tap water. But in reality, municipal water in the U.S. is more highly regulated than the bottled water industry. Information on every local water supplier is available upon request from your local water supplier.  Additionally, research also suggests that water stored in plastic bottles can become contaminated over time, especially if stored in a hot environment.

Success Stories

A biobased Solvent & Stripper is 100% derived from a proprietary blend of U.S. grown corn and soybean esters can strip and remove mastics, adhesives, paint and more from concrete, masonry, wood, metal and a host of other surfaces.  It is used for many industrial applications, including removal of graffiti.

In 2006, a record 53.4% of the paper consumed in the U.S. (or 53.5 million tons) was recovered for recycling. This is up from a 1990 recovery rate of 33.5%. The U.S. paper industry has set a goal to recover 55 percent of all the paper consumed in the U.S. by 2012.