Getting Green
To most environmentalists, the benefits of "Going Green" are obvious; but to the rest of us, it can be unclear and sometimes confusing. What does it all mean? Here are a few of the most commonly asked questions.Our Recycled News Section has many more in depth articles that will provide additional hints, tips and education. We will add to these sections on a regular basis so please check back often.
What Does Going Green Mean?
Going green means making everyday choices and
performing everyday actions that have a
positive impact on the environment as well as
the bottom line.
Recycling is more than just dropping off your cans, bottles, and newspapers at the curb or at a local collection facility. Diverting recyclables from the waste stream is only the first of three steps in the recycling process. The second step occurs when companies use these recyclables to manufacture new products. The third step comes when you purchase products made from recovered materials.
Living and working green means knowing your carbon footprint and taking steps to balance its impact. Offsetting your company's carbon footprint is the fastest and most economical way to help protect critical forests worldwide, which is one of the most effective solutions to climate change. One way to offset your carbon footprint is to purchase "greener" office products.
You have choices! Our Greener Office Products Catalog offers 2,500 greener product alternatives. “Greener” products go well beyond products that contain recycled material.
Recycling is more than just dropping off your cans, bottles, and newspapers at the curb or at a local collection facility. Diverting recyclables from the waste stream is only the first of three steps in the recycling process. The second step occurs when companies use these recyclables to manufacture new products. The third step comes when you purchase products made from recovered materials.
Living and working green means knowing your carbon footprint and taking steps to balance its impact. Offsetting your company's carbon footprint is the fastest and most economical way to help protect critical forests worldwide, which is one of the most effective solutions to climate change. One way to offset your carbon footprint is to purchase "greener" office products.
You have choices! Our Greener Office Products Catalog offers 2,500 greener product alternatives. “Greener” products go well beyond products that contain recycled material.
What Is Ecology?
Ecology is the science of interactions among
living organisms and their environment.
Ecology is the study of environmental
systems, or as it is sometimes called, the
economy of nature. "Environmental" usually
means relating to the natural, versus
human-made world; the "systems" means that
ecology is, by its very nature, not
interested in just the components of nature
individually but especially in how the parts
interact.
What Is Sustainability?
In it's simplest definition Sustainability
means being able to meet the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet there own needs.
By increasing our Sustainability we ensure
the availability of natural resources for our
children and children's children.
What Is A Carbon Footprint?
A Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact
human activities have on the environment in
terms of the amount of greenhouse gases
produced, measured in units of carbon
dioxide.
A Carbon Footprint is made up of the sum of two parts, the direct / primary footprint and the indirect / secondary footprint.
1. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane).
2. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown.
A Carbon Footprint is made up of the sum of two parts, the direct / primary footprint and the indirect / secondary footprint.
1. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane).
2. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown.
How Do I Reduce My Carbon Footprint?
Tips To Reduce Your Primary
Footprint
1. Vacations: Don't go by air
2. Electricity: Sign up for renewable energy
3. Gas: Try using solar water heating. This can reduce your gas bill by up to 70% over a year.
4. Around Town: Use public transport as much as possible. Find out about your local bus services and then use it.
5. Ride Share: Sign up for a ride share program to reduce your travel footprint.
Tips To Reduce Your Secondary Footprint
When you buy goods - consider where they have been made and the materials and processes used to make them. Items that have high emissions in the manufacture or delivery should be avoided when ever possible.
1. Bottled water: Tap water is safe to drink in most European and North American countries, yet people still insist on buying bottled water. If the bottle is labelled as being from volcanic springs - you can bet that it has probably been imported from some distance. Imagine the carbon footprint of shipping the water! And that's before adding in the emissions due to making the bottle.
2. Imported food & drink: When you go to the supermarket, look at the label to identify which country the food is from. There is no need to buy New Zealand apples in the US in the autumn - but people do!
Think twice about buying a bottle of wine from the other side of the world - you may be able to find much more local wine, which will have travelled far fewer miles.
Try growing your own fruit and vegetables. Planting an apple tree will not only provide you with lots of fruit, with zero carbon footprint, but the tree itself will breathe in carbon dioxide - making these fruit effectively carbon negative!
3. Meat eating: Reduce your consumption of meat, especially red meat.
4. Clothes from far off lands: Check the clothes labels before you buy. If they come from more than 1000 miles away, keep looking!
5. High packaged items: Avoid goods and services that have unnecessary packaging!
1. Vacations: Don't go by air
2. Electricity: Sign up for renewable energy
3. Gas: Try using solar water heating. This can reduce your gas bill by up to 70% over a year.
4. Around Town: Use public transport as much as possible. Find out about your local bus services and then use it.
5. Ride Share: Sign up for a ride share program to reduce your travel footprint.
Tips To Reduce Your Secondary Footprint
When you buy goods - consider where they have been made and the materials and processes used to make them. Items that have high emissions in the manufacture or delivery should be avoided when ever possible.
1. Bottled water: Tap water is safe to drink in most European and North American countries, yet people still insist on buying bottled water. If the bottle is labelled as being from volcanic springs - you can bet that it has probably been imported from some distance. Imagine the carbon footprint of shipping the water! And that's before adding in the emissions due to making the bottle.
2. Imported food & drink: When you go to the supermarket, look at the label to identify which country the food is from. There is no need to buy New Zealand apples in the US in the autumn - but people do!
Think twice about buying a bottle of wine from the other side of the world - you may be able to find much more local wine, which will have travelled far fewer miles.
Try growing your own fruit and vegetables. Planting an apple tree will not only provide you with lots of fruit, with zero carbon footprint, but the tree itself will breathe in carbon dioxide - making these fruit effectively carbon negative!
3. Meat eating: Reduce your consumption of meat, especially red meat.
4. Clothes from far off lands: Check the clothes labels before you buy. If they come from more than 1000 miles away, keep looking!
5. High packaged items: Avoid goods and services that have unnecessary packaging!
What Is A Carbon Credit?
Carbon credits are a key component of
national and international emissions trading
schemes that have been implemented to
mitigate global warming.
They provide a way to reduce greenhouse emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading.
Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.
There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis.
They provide a way to reduce greenhouse emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading.
Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.
There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis.
What Does Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Mean?
Reduce
Throwing things away is a waste of the energy and the resources taken to make the product. Reducing the number of things that need to be thrown away, reduces the amount of materials which have to be quarried and mined.
We should all avoid products with excessive packaging. The production of the packaging uses additional energy. The extra volume and weight will have to be transported by trucks, aircraft, ships and railroad.
Re-use
Everyone should try and re-use products for as long as feasibly possible. It is amazing how often people buy certain products and use them only once or twice, even though they can be re-used many times. For instance can you think of some items of clothing you have worn only once?
Recycle
Recycling uses less energy and produces less pollution than making things from scratch. For example: Making Aluminium cans from old ones uses one twelfth of the energy to make them from raw materials. For glass bottles, 630 lbs of CO2 is saved per ton of glass recycled after taking into account the transportation and processing. Making bags from recycled polythene takes one third the Sulphur Dioxide and half the Nitrous Oxide, than making them from scratch.
Another form of recycling is composting household and garden waste.
Throwing things away is a waste of the energy and the resources taken to make the product. Reducing the number of things that need to be thrown away, reduces the amount of materials which have to be quarried and mined.
We should all avoid products with excessive packaging. The production of the packaging uses additional energy. The extra volume and weight will have to be transported by trucks, aircraft, ships and railroad.
Re-use
Everyone should try and re-use products for as long as feasibly possible. It is amazing how often people buy certain products and use them only once or twice, even though they can be re-used many times. For instance can you think of some items of clothing you have worn only once?
Recycle
Recycling uses less energy and produces less pollution than making things from scratch. For example: Making Aluminium cans from old ones uses one twelfth of the energy to make them from raw materials. For glass bottles, 630 lbs of CO2 is saved per ton of glass recycled after taking into account the transportation and processing. Making bags from recycled polythene takes one third the Sulphur Dioxide and half the Nitrous Oxide, than making them from scratch.
Another form of recycling is composting household and garden waste.
Explain Recycled vs. Post Consumer Recycled
A recycled product is an item that contains
recovered materials. Recovered materials are
wastes that have been diverted from
conventional disposal such as landfills for
another use.
Pre-consumer materials are generated by manufacturers and processors, and may consist of scrap, trimmings and other by-products that were never used in the consumer market.
Post-consumer material is an end product that has completed its life cycle as a consumer item and would otherwise have been disposed of as a solid waste. Post-consumer materials include office paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics and metals.
Recycled products may contain some pre-consumer waste, some post-consumer waste or both. A product does not have to contain 100 percent recovered materials to be considered “recycled,” but clearly the higher the percentage of recycled content, the greater the amount of waste that is diverted from disposal.
Pre-consumer materials are generated by manufacturers and processors, and may consist of scrap, trimmings and other by-products that were never used in the consumer market.
Post-consumer material is an end product that has completed its life cycle as a consumer item and would otherwise have been disposed of as a solid waste. Post-consumer materials include office paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics and metals.
Recycled products may contain some pre-consumer waste, some post-consumer waste or both. A product does not have to contain 100 percent recovered materials to be considered “recycled,” but clearly the higher the percentage of recycled content, the greater the amount of waste that is diverted from disposal.
What Are Green Office Products?
By strictest definition the only truly green
office product is one not used. That's why we
refer to our eco-freindly office products as
"Greener". Every product presented in our
Greener Office Products Catalog meets
one of the following criteria:
♣ Recycled materials, with emphasis on post-consumer content
♣ Energy-efficient
♣ Compostable or biodegradable
♣ Non-toxic
♣ Reusable
♣ Recycled materials, with emphasis on post-consumer content
♣ Energy-efficient
♣ Compostable or biodegradable
♣ Non-toxic
♣ Reusable
Do Recycled Products Cost More?
The price of products, whether virgin or
recycled, is affected by many variables,
including: Availability and costs of
material, energy costs, distributor mark-up,
transportation charges and geographical
location.
Relative prices of recycled products and their comparable virgin products vary. Newport Stationers encourages you to compare prices between virgin and recycled products and also among the recycled products themselves.
According to a survey of several mills, merchants, and retailers conducted by the BRBA Buy Recycled Newsline for its Spring 2006 issue, the average price differential between recycled and virgin paper is approximately 5 percent.
Some retailers surveyed indicated the price for recycled paper was as good as, and sometimes better than, virgin paper.
Relative prices of recycled products and their comparable virgin products vary. Newport Stationers encourages you to compare prices between virgin and recycled products and also among the recycled products themselves.
According to a survey of several mills, merchants, and retailers conducted by the BRBA Buy Recycled Newsline for its Spring 2006 issue, the average price differential between recycled and virgin paper is approximately 5 percent.
Some retailers surveyed indicated the price for recycled paper was as good as, and sometimes better than, virgin paper.
How Do Recycled Products Perform?
In general, recycled-content products perform
as well as their virgin counterparts. In some
instances, they perform better. You do not
need to compromise quality to purchase
recycled products. In many cases, you will
not be able to distinguish recycled products
from virgin products. According to the 2006
Annual Buy Recycled Survey, conducted by the
National Recycling Coalition’s Buy Recycled
Business Alliance (BRBA), 97 percent of those
surveyed were very pleased with the overall
performance of recycled products.
Why Compost?
Composting helps fertilize soil, making
plants and vegetables grow better. Using home
made compost will minimise depletion of peat
bogs. Reduces the number of garbage
collections needed and reduces the strain on
land fill sites.
What can you compost?
Garden waste such as fallen leaves, grass cuttings and prunings. Kitchen waste such as raw vegetables, fruit, crushed egg shells, tea leaves & coffee grounds In addition try, shredded paper and cardboard.
Many Orange County companies have a Compost program at the office. Participants then share in the rewards by either using the compost on the company grounds or in their own yards and gardens.
What can you compost?
Garden waste such as fallen leaves, grass cuttings and prunings. Kitchen waste such as raw vegetables, fruit, crushed egg shells, tea leaves & coffee grounds In addition try, shredded paper and cardboard.
Many Orange County companies have a Compost program at the office. Participants then share in the rewards by either using the compost on the company grounds or in their own yards and gardens.
How Does My Company Start A Recycled Program?
We suggest that your first step is developing
a company policy on buying recycled products.
Doing so will make all other steps easier.
Next, put together a committee, be sure to
include staff from different departments to
help purchasers and users understand each
other’s needs and constraints. Then, conduct
an assessment of the products that your
company buys.
This assessment will reveal: Products that currently have recycled content & products that are not currently purchased with recycled content, but could be.
Next, Contact your Newport Stationers Rep and determine the availability of recycled products that meet your specifications. Your Rep will help you to find out exactly what products are available.
Finally keep an eye on this web site and a copy of our Greener Office Products Catalog on your desk. Awareness is the key.
This assessment will reveal: Products that currently have recycled content & products that are not currently purchased with recycled content, but could be.
Next, Contact your Newport Stationers Rep and determine the availability of recycled products that meet your specifications. Your Rep will help you to find out exactly what products are available.
Finally keep an eye on this web site and a copy of our Greener Office Products Catalog on your desk. Awareness is the key.
How Do I Encourage My Employees To Participate?
Promote the program routine training and
electronic mail. Employee education is
necessary to help your employees understand
your environmental commitments and how they
can help ensure your program is successful.
Educated employees can offer suggestions to
improve your program and help you purchase
quality recycled products. The satisfaction
of employees who use the products you
purchase is key.