Green office in the Gray Urban Landscape

How can an office take steps to produce less waste and consume less energy? First of all, the people that work in the office must want to make a difference. After all, it is us humans that create the waste, not the office walls.

We aren't perfect here at 715 Boylston Street, but we have taken some basic steps at the D2E office over the past year. And as we continue to learn more about the great services and products available, we do more. Below is a list of the changes we made in 2007.

1. Consume less
- Only print when needed.
- Use both sides of paper
- Use ceramic mugs for coffee and glasses or SIGG bottles for water (Some in the office are hard-core and will not allow themselves to get a coffee at our local cafe unless they bring their own mug.)
- We use cloth towels in our bathroom
- We keep two shopping bags hanging from the coat rack in case anyone needs to do some shopping and forgot their bag.
- Turn heat off at night and weekends.
- Only use lights that are needed.

2. Recycle
- Earthworm picks up our paper to recycle
- One office's trash is our office's conference table.
- We signed up for the Stonyfield recycling program so that our yogurt containers can be turned into plant pots
- I found my desk on the curb (elbow grease and paint to spruce it up)
- 2 office chairs are from a second hand shop
- We have a table from Artists for Humanity that is made out of old catalogs and magazines - very cool. (see top photo)

3. Public Transportation
We moved our office to the Back Bay so that it would be right on public transportation. Now everyone either takes the bus, the subway or rides a bike to work - even Lucy the Black Lab.

The next big step for the office is the Low Carbon Diet. At the encouragement of Dan Ruben, we have all purchased a copy of the work book and this week we are having our first team meeting. More to come on that subject.