Always Nice To See The Big Boys Working On Greening Their Businesses

Posted: April 14th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Green Businesses, Green Initiatives | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

Here’s a little news story about a big company doing green things. Toshiba Canada is one of the more progressive outposts in the vast Toshiba empire when it comes to green initiatives. We encourage you to check out this link…who knows, maybe you’ll get some ideas that will help you green your workplace too.

http://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/4459820-markham-company-puts-focus-on-being-green/


How Greener Practices Can Save Your Business Money

Posted: October 26th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Green Businesses, Green Recycling | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

This is a guest post from blogger and friend of Our Green Directory, Elizabeth Reed. We have an open door policy for guest blogger. As long as it’s green, interesting and informative we’re happy to post.

No one goes into business to lose money on purpose. As we live in the digital age, there are many ways we can save money around the office while improving efficiency. Practicing “greener” ways of doing business can keep more money available for the things you need. This doesn’t mean you need to sign up with Green Peace or other organizations, but you may need to change your point of view in order to implement some of these ideas.

1. Conversion to Paperless – Much of what we do in today’s world is paperless as it is. Using email, you can eliminate a great deal of the paper that your business goes through. How far can you take a paperless system?

  • Accounting software that uses email to send invoices and transactions
  • Time card systems for employees that are based on a computer system
  • Emphasize email for sending memos throughout your organization
  • Payment acceptance systems that email receipts instead of printing them

These are just a few implementations you can enact that could save your business money in both paper and ink. Each one can also be considered more efficient in its own right due to the fact that man-hours are no longer needed to maintain them.

2. Computer Systems – Although new computers are being built to be more energy efficient than those of old, powering down these devices at night can save money on your energy bills. This is aside from the wear and tear internal moving components experience as they sit idle. For instance, most cooling fans have a life of 50,000 hours. Once these breakdown, the computer system can easily overheat and cause additional and more expensive damage to repair.

3. Lighting – Motion detection or timed light switches can prevent the occasional “accident” of leaving the lights on in a room. Many businesses have moved to installing motion detecting switches in the bathrooms and break rooms in order to reduce the energy waste. It makes no sense to leave lights on in an area if no one is there to use them. While it may only be one room, the energy wasted throughout the year can easily add up. Timed light switches are common in areas such as storage units where motion is common in the outdoors. As a cat or dog could set off a motion light, a timed switch will turn itself off until a patron needs to access a unit.

There are many ways that a business can save money by practicing greener methods. In fact, some have even gone so far as to make money by recycling specific products. Regardless of your company’s focus, green innovation allows you to find a better approach to operations that save money. Not only can you do your part in protecting the environment you live in, but you can protect your company’s assets while doing so.

Author Bio:

Elizabeth Reed is a freelance writer and a resident blogger at Liveinnanny.org. She particularly enjoys writing about parenting, childcare, health and wellness. In addition, she is an expert consultant on issues related to household management and kids.


Berlin Street Artists Make Insane Art Out Of The City’s Waste

Posted: September 22nd, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: green art, Re-use | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

This is a really cool article about a ‘green’ activity that’s going on in Berlin Germany. The link below will take you to the Fast Company blog where this article is posted. I think this would be a great initiative to try and get launched in Canada, where there seems to be a never ending supply of stuff destined for landfills just hanging around on the streets. The artists’ ‘re-use of this material not only  makes for some very interesting art, but also reduces the burden that our ever growing landfills must carry.

The blog was written by NYC writer Sydney Brownstone, whose bio is below the link.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3016733/berlin-street-artists-make-insane-art-out-of-the-citys-waste#6

Sydney Brownstone is a New York-based staff writer at Co.Exist. She lives in a Brooklyn apartment with windows that don’t quite open, and is interested in systemic abuse of public space and the commons. She’s written for the Village Voice, Mother Jones, Brooklyn Magazine, The L Magazine, and has contributed to NPR.


Our Standards.

Posted: March 31st, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Green Communities, Green Services, Our Green Standards | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »

Depending on how many signups we have on our site, I usually sit down on Sunday morning and go through all the listing applicants, separate out the ones that do qualify for listing from those who don’t, assign categories and then post their listings on the site.

As we have grown (about 550 listings), I have started to notice that there are a lot of businesses registering on the site that really do comply with the standards we have set for ourselves. While our standards are not as stringent as most directories of this kind, they are still designed to give our visitors eco friendly options for the products and services they are looking for.

To that end I thought it would be good to restate the standards we have defined for Our Green Directory. This should make it pretty easy for you to understand whether or not you would be qualified for listing on our site. If you’re not, it could save you the hassle of filling out the listing information. If you are qualified, then by all means feel free to list your business.

For those listing their business, please keep in mind that the description of your business in a line listing is limited to 255 characters including spaces. If you enter a description longer than that, the site will cut it off and that will be frustrating to the people reading your listing.

Our Green Directory Standards

Because Our GreenDirectory is a showcase of Green products and services, we should define as what we mean by “Green”.

For purposes of being promoted on this site, a “Green” enterprise or service is one which has the goal of either supporting environmentalism or supporting the preservation of the environment and adheres to any of the following criteria:

Overall, “Green” enterprises are those with a clear commitment to improving the environment in any of a number of ways.

In the Product Area this includes recycled products, fair trade products, organic products or products which are providing either a dramatic reduction in gas emissions or the promotion of alternative low carbon energy sources.

In the Services Area, this includes companies with a defined commitment to energy use reduction, by implementing strict conservation measures, by increasing recycling and reuse and by reducing consumption and waste. This also includes those companies and consultants who teach other companies how to become “Green”.

If your company is described by any of the aforementioned criteria, you may feel free to apply for placement on this site.

NOTE: We evaluate applying companies on an individual basis and reserve the right to deny any listings.


Buying Local — It’s Good For A Lot of Reasons.

Posted: January 28th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Green Communities, Green Home, Green Jobs | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

While this isn’t what you would call strictly a green post, it is an issue about which we feel strongly. The Green Movement is a community, within that community are a lot of small businesses that are doing their best to act in an environmentally responsible way. We believe that is is the accumulation of a lot of those little things that are achieved by helping out local business that help us all be greener. Shopping locally means, in a lot of cases you are using your car less. It also means you are providing less support to the highly toxic Asian manufacturing world, where the WalMarts of the world get a great many of their products and foods. And you are supporting a strong retail environment in your own neighbourhood, which impacts directly on your own quality of life, among other things.

I found this little poster on Facebook the other day, and thought it might be nice to share with you, as a reminder of the benefits of shopping locally. Please feel free to share it with your on line friends.