Kermit told us “it’s not easy being green”… but really it is!

There’s no radical activism or over-the-head beating involved. graphXdiva has made a commitment to make changes to our company that will lessen our carbon footprint. Why? Because we really, REALLY like our planet.

 

Remember at the end of the song Kermit really did love his color….

”It's beautiful! And it's what I want to be…”

 

Small changes make a HUGE difference. All of the steps below save $$, fossil fuels, solid waste, water, energy and greenhouse gases. Try this calculator to see what your office footprint is.

 

 

Don’t print every correspondence or interesting page and save trees.

Instead, we make edits from the screen and bookmark favorite web pages for future reference. If we do need to print email or drafts, we print them using the economy mode on our printers. We reuse the paper for either note paper or pop it back in the printer to print drafts on the reverse side. The originals are archived on computers for future reference. And when you are done with paper, recycle it!

 

Did you know???

By recycling 120 lbs of paper you keep the earth 1 tree greener and if forty 10 ream boxes of typical office paper (or one ton) are recycled, you’ve saved 17 trees. I know it can take a long time for that to happen but also count in your envelopes, newspapers, paper bags, phone books, cardboard…if it’s paper and it rips, recycle it.

 

Recycle Ink and Save almost 50% of costs.

We recycle all of our ink cartridges at Cartridge World and it’s saved our company almost 50% of in-office ink costs. Additionally, refilling the cartridge supports local communities by reducing waste and protecting the environment.

 

Did you know??

- It takes about a gallon of oil to make a new laser cartridge.
- In North America alone, over 350 million cartridges per year are thrown into our landfills!
- A laser cartridge thrown into landfill can take up to 450 years to decompose.
- Every remanufactured cartridge saves nearly 3 and 1/2 pounds of solid waste from being deposited in landfills.

 

Use 100% Post Consumer, Non-Chlorine Paper and save $$ and trees!

We were a little skeptical with this one, but with the minimal paper usage we have in our office now, we figured what the heck. So we bought only one ream of New Leaf paper and we were very impressed. Not only was the cost cheaper (Staples 22# copy/multipurpose paper $6.38 per ream vs. New Leaf Encore 100 $6.25 ream) but we don’t notice any difference. New Leaf’s facility is powered by 100% renewable energy including wind and biogas.We also use Aspen 100 Office Paper ONLY $4.79 a ream at www.thegreenoffice.com. It is 100% post consumer product and processed chlorine-free.Want to know how your paper usage impacts the planet?. The Paper Calculator shows the environmental impacts of different papers across their full lifecycle and how by choosing the right paper, you can save wood, water, and energy, and cut pollution and solid waste.

 

Did you know??

Chlorine has traditionally been used in paper products to whiten pulp.  Paper manufacturers now offer three chlorine conscious options:  (1)  Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) which eliminates the use of chlorine and its derivatives, (2) Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) which is equal to TCF except that trace amounts of chlorine from previously bleached recycled fiber may be found, and (3) Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) which is made using a less harmful derivative of chlorine, such as chlorine dioxide.FACT: Reported in a Conservatree Press Release in 2002, Cosmopolitan, which uses 328,577 trees every year, could save at least 32,858 trees a year by switching to competitively priced recycled paper offering the same performance as virgin paper.

 

Instead of Mass, Direct Mailing….we recommend our clients offer online mailing lists.

Since web design is the main focus of our business, we do still work in print. However, when a client approaches us about creating a direct mail campaign, we talk to them about the possibility of using their websites as a sales lead capture tool. Usually it annoys people to receive mail they didn’t want. Don’t get me wrong, mass mailing definitely has it’s place, we have used it, but when you want to get your message out to a targeted audience, use your website. Adding a simple email capture form and getting your message out to the world via the internet is often cheaper and more effective.

 

Our employees Tele-Commute!

Our biggest advantage over many other design agencies is that our overhead costs are very low. By keeping home offices and connecting to a virtual office, we can add as many employees or contractors as we want. And we aren’t limited to geography, space or equipment constraints. Often high costs are eliminated on complex jobs because we can access great talent all over the country, from all walks of life. 

 

We Threw Out Our Fax Machine….but still receive faxes FREE!

When we chose to operate our business virtually, traditional faxing became obsolete. We signed up for our own eFax number. The service is FREE if you want to receive faxes. We rarely send faxes since we utilize email and attachments for most communication, but in order to make sure we accommodate ALL clients we signed up for the $15 per month service that allows us to send and receive faxes.We have found it a great tool since we can save incoming faxes right in our client’s folder on our server so all employees have access.

 

 

We said “Ciao” to our UPS and FedEx man and saved 75% of shipping costs PLUS! Our files are delivered the SAME DAY!

When we need to send a client or printer a large file, or a client needs to send us photographs too large for email we use an online transfer service. Provided FREE by YouSendIt.com, we are able to send up to 100megs of files to clients. It’s simple, we create a zipped or stuffed folder of what we want to send, attach it to the YouSendIt interface and send it to the client. The client never receives a large attachment in their email, instead they receive a link to download the files.

 

Did you know??

Currently published fuel surcharges for UPS and FedEx Ground are 4.5% and expedited services are over 13%.

 

Commercially Print with Soy and Vegetable Based Inks.

When quoting a commercial printing job, we always include the costs for soy or vegetable based ink printing. The quality is as good as and sometimes better than traditional offset printing and it saves a ton of resources. One company I use regularly, Greener Printer has been audited and below you can see the cumulative resources they save:

 

I know, what are the costs? Comparably with most commercial printers the costs are either the same or slightly higher than using mineral-oil inks and chemicals.

 

Did you know??

Printing is one of the world's largest industries, and the 6th worst in terms of impacts on the environment. The main environmental issues are:
• Normal litho printing wastes a huge amount of water (thousands of liters a day). Waterless printing is the 'green' alternative
• Chemicals - in normal litho printing a lot of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in mineral-oil inks and in chemicals used to clean the presses etc. VOCs contribute to loss of the ozone layer.
• Paper use - many organizations now use recycled paper or paper which uses pulp from sustainable, managed forests. However in terms of environmental impacts, this is only a minor part of the problem.