Going Green is more than just switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, turning things off, and
recycling paper and plastics. Your business web site and the Internet are two great tools you can use to “Go Green” and help your business be more efficient and productive. Here are some easy steps you can take.

Go Paperless

T his is one of the most basic and easy ways to be more eco-friendly. Emails, invoices, newsletters, proposals, brochures, fact sheets, case studies, etc., can be viewed and read electronically and then saved to a folder on your computer. Incorporate a Green e-mail signature. By adding “Think Before You Print This E-Mail” to your messages, you are emphasizing the importance of only printing e-mails if it’s absolutely necessary.

Post your company policies, employee handbooks and other important documents online, rather than handing out printed copies. This reduces the use of paper and ink, and allows you to update the documents quickly and easily.

Electronic Signatures

If you are still scanning, faxing or mailing documents in order to obtain signatures, you may be able to save a lot of time by using electronic signatures. Electronic signatures have been as legally binding as a physical signature since the Federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (E-SIGN) Act was signed in the U.S. in 2000.  Electronic signatures can save you time, money and are harder to forge since they use digital encryption technology.

• Set up a digital signature in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat
• Set up digital identities for signing Microsoft Office 2007 and Adobe Acrobat v8 PDF documents
  
  

Utilize Webinars, Webcasts, and Conferencing

These are three terms used to describe virtual meetings over the Internet. Each person participating in the conference uses their own computer and either an online or downloaded application to join the web meeting.

By conducting webinars rather than in-person seminars when possible, you save on fuel, electricity, signage, printed materials and more.  Webinars can be used for things like employee training, educational sessions for clients, product demonstrations, and more.

There are paid and free webinar tools available online. One example is Dim-Dim. They have a free version, which allows you to run a meeting with up to 20 people. The paid versions allow you to use a whiteboard, share presentations, and have more people attend. With both the free and paid versions you can record the class to save it or share with people who couldn't attend.

Often times meetings can be held via a conference call, instead of in-person. This avoids unnecessary travel and is often more productive in terms of the meeting itself. Participants are more likely to stick to an agenda, resulting in a more efficient meeting.

There are many conference calling tools available, such as http://www.freeconference.com. They allow you to easily arrange
calls between multiple people by providing a phone number to call
into as well as a code to connect you to the other people who are
part of your call.

Use Eco-Friendly Search Engines

Blackle is an an energy saving search engine, with a black background that saves monitor power.
http://www.blackle.com/about

Ecocho is a search engine by Yahoo! For every 1000 searches that users make on ecocho.com, two trees will be grown to offset carbon pollution emissions.
http://www.ecocho.com/

Helpful Web Sites and Articles

Tools Available from Microsoft to Reduce Waste and Cut Workplace Costs

Carbon Footprint - This tool calculates your carbon emission from your vehicle usage, travelling routines, etc.

101 Ways to Decrease your Carbon Footprint

Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Business

We hope you enjoyed this MJU Training & Tips message!

- The MJ Team