Be kind to Mother Nature and go green at work

Tensions can run high in the workplace when it comes to environmental matters.

This has been revealed in a North American survey released by Xerox to measure environmental consciousness in the workplace.

The survey found that work colleagues may have some strong objections to those who don't walk-the-green-talk at the office.Results of the survey show that almost 40 percent of US respondents said their number one office environmental pet peeve was mindless printing resulting in abandoned pages at the printer, followed closely by leaving the lights on in unused offices (37 percent).A review of the other top office pet peeves included:

• Lack of recycling bins (33 percent);
• Excessive air conditioning or heating (29 percent);
• Excessive use of paper products - like plates and cups (27 percent);
• Co-workers who don't recycle (27 percent); and
• Co-workers who print single-sided instead of double-sided documents (24 percent).

"As we talk with our customers, we often find that people are environmentally aware at home, but the office is still a breeding ground for bad habits," says Rob Abraham, MD of Bytes Document Solutions, distributor of Xerox in 24 African countries. "Yet, as this survey shows, it takes just a few small steps to make a big difference."

Abraham has the following advice:

• Use the technology available in the office to cut back on paper use, reduce waste and reduce energy consumption. That can mean simply setting the office printers to default to two-sided printing, which cuts office paper use in half.
• Replace single-function printers and copiers with multifunction systems, as this slashes energy use.

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