Eco Friendly House And Garden

Why plant yourself in an office when you can get your work done out in the garden?

Running an eco friendly business shouldn't be separate from your lifestyle, so why should you have to make all your decisions and phone calls in your office?  Why can't you plan your next meeting while you are planting your next crop of courgettes?  Or catch up with your contacts while you are painting your pottery?

Eco living is all about the life/work balance not just remembering to check the page setup before printing anything or ordering those reycled content envelopes!

But Smart Phones Are Bulky?

Well, good job I wasn't talking about smartphones then!  I was thinking about wireless headsets.

Modern mobile gadgets can have their place in an eco friendly office – especially if they replace old-fashioned, energy-consuming older versions – but why still rely on an old phone for your office?

Yes, simple phones with no ansaphone or display features don't use electricity and are still the most eco friendly form of telephone communication – but you can't run a successful business these days without technology – and this includes your phone.

If you were trying to run nearly all big businesses with one landline number, no answering or call divert system and no website – you wouldn't get too far.  So why not take all the gadget world has to offer – but just choose the most eco friendly companies to buy from and recycle all your old equipment.

What Is Out There?

Well, there are many companies out there that can offer a range of wireless communication headsets and accessories – like Plantronics - where you can get the whole set-up you need from the one place.  There are also many types of headsets and bluetooth ear-pieces to choose from

And you could be out there too!  Most businesses thrive on their ability to answer customer calls within seconds and to actually offer a human voice to your consumers – so what better way than to have your landline linked up to a headset that you can wear or carry around your home and garden with you – and never miss a call!

There are different accessories of course, for different purposes.  Ear pieces for when you are in public, or comfy supported headsets for longer use and greater ease of use.  Whatever suit your needs – and wants.

All options keep both your hands free for getting on with the important things in life without having to wedge the phone between your chin and shoulder, muffling your voice or dropping your phone!

Never miss and eco customer and never waste time at your desk waiting for a call!

Think smart – think eco friendly!

Shouldn't being eco friendly be easier than not being green?

Why do so many eco friendly alternatives mean 'putting yourself out' or taking longer to get things done?  When you are a busy mum or are running a tight business – green alternatives should be making your life easier – not slowing you down!

So, I have found a few great eco inventions that could make being eco aware that much easier – and hopefully save you time and money along the way…..

Whole House Switch Off:
Why waste time checking all your plugs and appliances are switched off before leaving the house – because if you are in a hurry – you might not be so thorough!

By wiring up your whole home – or just parts of it – to 1 single 'OFF' switch your life couldn't be easier!  Obviously it won't be linked up to your fridge and freezer, or anything else you need to leave on – but all the lights, TV's and other appliances will switch off until you return home!  Easy.

Power Aware Cord:
If you don't fancy a giant one off switch, then maybe glowing power cables can make it easier to see if things are switched off before you go to bed rather than climbing behind units and cabinets to check the wall switch.

Strida 3 Folding Bike:
Rather than having to carry around your bike seat, take spare clothes to work or wipe oil off your trouser leg – you could ride a tiny folding bike instead!  Gone are the days when a bike was in 1 piece and you needed to worry about leaving it outside.  No more riding in the rain or catching your shin on the pedals when pushing your bike into the garage! 

This neat little bike folds up so easily and is so portable that you have nothing preventing you cycling to work or town knowing that you can still pop inot the shops – or catch a bus if it starts raining!  And they are thinking of making an even smaller, lighter version too….

Eco Friendly Room Dividers:
There are several different eco friendly room dividers on the market that can change the appearance and layout of a room without resorting to stud walls, re-decorating or demolition. 

Either made or felt, wood, eco-friendly plastics or strengthened cardboard and designed in a modular fashion – these 'walls' could be made, shaped or moved to suit your needs – without great cost.  And coming in a variety of colours – they could act as temporary 'wall paper' as well then changed with the seasons being used again and again over time.

Just keep them coming…. We need more like these……

Choosing the right plants could help rid your home of toxic fumes!

We all know that our furniture, carpeting, toiletries and paints all leak out potentially harmful chemicals – but sometimes we can’t buy chemical-free eco friendly everything – so what can we do about it?

Well, there have been a great many studies conducted about our homes, trends in furnishings, chemical usage and lifestyle questionnaires by all sorts of agencies – including NASA – that we have a great deal of knowledge about reducing our exposure.

photo credit: marcusrg

Obviously not bringing it into our home in the first place is the perfect answer – but we know that this isn’t a viable answer for most people – and can be very expensive in some cases.

Going Green:
Well, luckily, many of the surveys have worked out that plants can create a more healthy environment in the home or office to counter the effects of these gases and chemicals in the air.

Certain plants have even been found to actually ‘suck’ such toxins out of the air as part of their natural actions as a plant!

Plants ‘breathe’ in a different way to humans and so their actions whilst sitting their seemingly doing nothing in a pot could be freeing your home of bad air and making your home more healthy!

Plants in certain rooms or close to where you spend the most time can be most effective as they are clearing the worst areas first and fastest – so beside your desk, your bed and in newly furnished or freshly painted rooms.

Problem Areas:
There are some places and times where there will be more chemicals released than usual, and these include the obvious ones like: new carpet, decorated room, varnished floor etc.

But there are also some places or things you might not think of:

Ceiling Tiles – give off formaldehyde and benzene
Cleaning Products – give off ammonia when used
Cosmetics & Nail Polish – can emit alcohols and acetone upon application
Photocopiers – regularly emit trichloroethylene, xylene, benzene and ammonia
Your New Curtains – give off formaldehyde
Grocery Bags – also give off formaldehyde when new
Paper Towels – give off formaldehyde as well!
Even Pre-Printed Paper – contains acetone

And don’t forget that we as humans give off chemicals when we breathe, sweat, wear make-up, deodorant and hair products – so in a stuffy office – you are inhaling your own and other staffs bio effluents!

The Results:
Now, I’m not saying that you should fill your homes and offices with plants – but a few here and there in the right places could make the world of difference to you in terms of reducing headaches, rashes, allergies and general tiredness.

photo credit: bfishadow

And in the right pots and sizes – they can help to relax you as well!

Now, the lists below are their common names, but look an image of them up before you buy as some are very common plants that you might already know about – and others might be totally the wrong shape of size for your home.  And check out the care instructions too as some need direct sunlight, and some only like shade!

Plants that remove formaldehyde best:
Boston Fern, Florists Mum, Gerbera, Bamboo Palm, Dwarf Date Palm.

Plants that remove xylene and toulene best:
Areca Palm, Dwarf Date Palm, Moth Orchid.

Plants that remove ammonia best:
Lady Palm, King of Hearts, Lily Turf, Lady Jane, Florists Mum.

And best plant for bioeffluents:
Peace Lily.

photo credit: Tahmid Munaz™

So get yourself to the garden centre!

Forget meeting associates in a pub and collecting your mail from a PO Box – get yourself a ‘hot office’.

These days sharing things is the new green alternative to buying your own everything!  Just like hiring the church hall rather than building your own one – you can hire an office space that is already where you want it – and is the right size for your needs.

These new business schemes for small businesses could really be the way forward for your green business!

The Best Space:
If you hire your own office space, you are stuck with it for the length of your lease.  Do you go for the smallest you can find, the largest you can afford or whatever you find that happens to be in the right place?

Then you are stuck with an office that it too small to grow into, a ginormous space to heat and power for just you or an odd shaped space that isn’t really ergonomic or even suits your growing needs.

photo credit: jcortell

So why not consider a scheme that allows you to choose the office size you want on a session to session basis or a scheme that allows you to have an office in the location you prefer but that will suit your needs.

Sometimes your meeting room, business lounge or mailing address can be all the difference between appearing professional or staying small!

Time Saving:
Needless to say, if you only use an office for the important meetings and conferences then you may find yourself organising your work more effectively to suit those days – and getting all your non-important work done at home on on the road.

Also a scheme that lets office space will usually also offer mail sorting and telephone services as well.  This way, someone else will be sorting and forwarding your mail and fielding all your calls – perfect for saving you time sifting through junk mail and endless customers who just want your opening hours/returns policy/prices/website address.

If someone else is doing all the basic time-consuming things for you – then you have more time to focus on the really important things for your green business.

Eco Savings:
And it’s not just time you will be saving – it will be the environmental costs of running an office you might only spend a few hours a day in.  I mean if you have rented that space and you work in that office for an average of 40 hours a week – that means there are 128 hours a week where your office will be sitting empty.

You will have to secure this unit, clean this unit, power this unit, supply water and toilets to the unit, heat and cool this unit and maybe even furnish and repair this unit – all just for you.  Your assistant will be using all their own resources too if you have one.

So thinking big – if your office block or industrial unit has 30 other small businesses in it – that all adds up to a lot of land, resources, costs and wasted time to keep you all in business.

However, 1 single office unit with these 30 businesses rotating office space to suit their needs and their working hours would save so much energy and resources.  Now add on a central reception area where all these businesses have their mail sorted and their calls answered (possibly with just 2 or 3 permanent staff) and you have saved so many resources that it might seem difficult to call your company ‘green’ if it didn’t use this service!

Conclusion:
Whether you are starting a green business or just trying to make your business more green – perhaps you should pretend that you have 30 offices to run instead of just the 1 – then see whether you are still green then.

I know everyone wants to achieve different things – but by scaling up your efforts you can see whether you would still be green if there were 30 of you doing the same thing.

We all have offices, phones, desks, windows, kettles, chairs and heating etc regardless of your business type – so thinking big can sometimes be better.

So before you sign that contract – think big!

A friend recently fell in love with my bathroom after a nights sleep-over!

I have underfloor heating in there, and she just loved stepping out of the shower and onto a lovely warm floor!  The heating was installed in the bathroom and the kitchen after we moved in, and I love it!

We originally had it installed when we moved into an old Victorian terraced house - with little space for a modern kitchen – and no discernible bathroom!  The bath was sitting in a lean-to at the back of the property, with pipes running down the wall for taps and a creaky and gappy wooden door out to the garden!

We had to re-design the back of the house to fit a real bathroom and didn’t want to waste an inch of what space we had with radiators – so did a bit of research on our options for heating the 2 rooms.

I was very pleased with the result, and have not regretted it at all.

So, How Did We Do It?
Firstly, we consulted a plumber as we were needing to fit a new condensing boiler at the same time.  He said that he had been fitting more an more underfloor heating systems in the past few years – and he even had it in his house too!

It’s really simple to do as well if you are laying a new floor – as we were – and you just need to lay enough flexible cable under the surface to create an even spread and then lay the floor as usual.  We had tiles in the bathroom and bamboo in the kitchen – not a problem he said.

It also turns out that there are many other benefits to underfloor heating other than not needing to cover your walls in radiators when you really need another cupboard there!

The Main Benefits:
Where shall I start – there are so many? 

Well, for starters it is more energy efficient to run this type of heating over conventional central heating, and the average home could increase efficiency of the whole system by between 10-25% – this can rise to around 60% more efficient in offices with high ceilings. 

Think of the money and energy you could be saving – plus being warmer in your own home or office!

The main reason for the savings is because radiators heat the room by convection; that is all their hot air is forced out of the radiator and then it rises up the wall towards the ceiling.  It only descends into the room after it has cooled slightly – and then heats your head while keeping your feet cold! 

Added to this, it is standard practice to place radiators underneath windows to counter the draughts – but inevitably helps you lose heat out of the windows before it even hits your ceiling in the first place!

Also, the pipes leading to the radiators are usually running along your walls are boiling hot - losing heat as they go (well, if the pipes feel hot, then they are releasing that heat before they get to the radiators)!  Finally, your radiators need the temperature of the water inside to be around 60-70 degrees to be effective - a temperature that can only be reached by burning gas and fossil fuels.

The exact opposite is true of underfloor heating.  Firstly, the heat rises slowly out of the floor creating an ambient temperature and no draughts.  It doesn’t move warm and cold air around the room, taking dust and allergens with it – it just creates a warm room and warm toes!

Secondly, all the pipes are under your floor so are only ‘losing heat’ up into your home – which is just where you want it.  And, there is no risk of children or the elderly scalding themselves on the pipes or radiators – all the heat is safely underground.

And thirdly, underfloor heating can run at a much lower temperature, therefore can be powered by energy sources such as solar and both air and ground source heat pumps instead of burning coal, oil or gas.

Further Benefits:
There are other benefits to this form of heating other than just more efficient heating and money saving running costs, and they include:

Reduced Allergies – With no convection currents circulating around your home, you will have less trouble with floating allergens and dust.
Better Design – With no bulky, hot radiators around your walls and hallways, you can change the layout of your home to suit you – not to simply ‘fit’ in.
Reduced Maintenance – With no fiddly radiators and pipes to clean, dust or paint, you can keep your home clean and tidy – or even repaint it – without having to spend extra time, energy and resources working around these space-wasters!
Less Stress On Your Boiler – Running at lower temperatures will be better for the life-span of your boiler.

So, don’t put ‘new slippers’ on your shopping list for gifts – put ‘underfloor heating’ instead!

An Easy Way To Stop Wasting Money At Home…..

I have always been the person nagging others at home or in the office to check what they print before they print it.  The number of times they churn off 3 or 4 pages of just a tiny line or a few words rather than having taken the time to check their ‘print preview’ before taking action.

Even an information sheet a friend got from her local hospital one time had just 2 lines of information on the second sheet!  It was headed and footered (if that’s a word) with all the important pre-printed Hospital details as well!  What a complete waste of money from our health services!  Why on earth someone couldn’t have checked this before printing off a batch I don’t know. 

They many only have needed to delete a few non-important words from the introduction or joined one short papragraph onto the end of a neighboring short paragraph and the paper, money and energy saved would no doubt be amazing!  What if every hospital didn’t do this for all their every-day information sheets?  Its no wonder there is always a waiting list at the hospitals here – they are wasting goodness knows how much on headed paper and the staples holding empty sheets of paper together!!!

Anyway, no matter how hard I tried when printing spreadsheets and documents, I still had great trouble with the Internet.  How many times the information went off the sheet at the non-existent right margin!  The number of sheets of paper printing off just the website address and page 12 of 13 on them was unstoppable!  I needed help.

Sure enough, after some searching, I found a free piece of software that could help me out here!  This fantastic ‘i can’t believe someone hasn’t thought of it sooner’ software is sure to amaze you and also save you a fortune – and the planet!!!

Does It Really Make A Difference?
When I first visited the site earlier this year, I noticed that they had a count-up facility, that monitored how their software was saving printed pages of waste and how much that was in terms of carbon emissions.  It said then that they had saved around 4.5 million pieces of paper (thats just under 500 trees by their calculations) and just over 3 million lbs of C02 saved in energy and inks printing the useless things!

Since then (about 8 weeks), their calculators are showing that they have saved another 100 trees, and stopped a further 500,000 lbs of C02 being spat out from factories to print our blank pages!

Obviously this calculation is only based on the people that have downloaded the software, but maybe something like this should become standard for businesses, like hospitals, so that waste is severely reduced.  The example of the information above is frightening that with just a few minutes of better preparation the costs of printing could be halved – and staples would stay in their boxes!

Of course, you can save printed waste without this software by using ‘page preview’ every-time and cutting and pasting information from websites onto your preferred written software (reducing the font size and editing the information down to save ink and pages), but this is free and easy to use.

What Does It Do?
It helps you to highlight and remove unwanted pages that are going to print from the pages you have selected allowing you control over what it prints and what it deletes.  It also allows you to create PDF’s with one click to avoid the mess that usually prints from a web-page.

Their GreenPrint World Edition always self-deletes the wasted pages at the end of most article itself.  You know – the ones with just the URL, banner ads and legal disclaimer on them that you no doubt have to then shred or recycle having served no purpose at all – except increases your overheads!

For fun (or serious if it’s your own business), it also allows you to keep a track of what you have printed since installing the software and how much paper you have saved!

It’s not like you will be missing anything important – just saving time, money and resources.

Green Print software is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista (32 bit only). And it’s free to anyone.

They are aiming to save over 100 million trees and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 300 million tonnes (and while I have been writing this they have saved another tree!!!).  They also offer great deals on recycled office supplies!