In retrospect, turning Controversial Enterprises, a small software design company located in Southern Illinois, green probably wasn't my best idea but it wasn't my worst idea either. West Frankfort, Illinois may be in Southern Illinois but we have heard of climate change.
It started out around the water cooler (OK, Coke machine, work with me here) as we were discussing the scientific fallacies of the Al Gore movie "An Inconvenient Truth". The science didn't work in it and as we are all scientists of one form or another in this company, we were discussing the errors. It's what we techno-geeks do.
While the science on global warming is a farce as far as we and most of the scientific world can see, that didn't mean that we have to trash the planet. We have to live here dirty, clean, hot or cold. I suggested that we at least recycle our cans. Given the number of them, we could use the money to buy recycled computer paper...or more soda.
We have been recycling our printer cartridges since that ability became available to us. The same is true of company cell phones, plastic and paper. OK, I admit that recycling the paper came later. But we have been doing it simply because it's cheaper. That's really the bottom line here.
For any business to stay in business you have to make enough money to pay the bills and the employees. Anything that is going to save money is going to be used. If the cost is negligible it might be something a company would do.
Locally we have had a nightmare with the regional electric company. The rates are incredibly high and highest in summer. Summers here are hot with temperatures well above 90 degrees. Computers and employees don't like to be that hot. In the summer our air conditioners never stop. The dehumidifiers never stop. So we are always looking at ways to decrease our energy usage.
One way we have found to decrease our energy usage is by upgrading to the newest energy efficient computer and printers when we upgrade. It doesn't cost any more to do that. We also make sure to use the sleep mode whenever possible. This uses far less energy than just leaving computers on in full mode.
It started out around the water cooler (OK, Coke machine, work with me here) as we were discussing the scientific fallacies of the Al Gore movie "An Inconvenient Truth". The science didn't work in it and as we are all scientists of one form or another in this company, we were discussing the errors. It's what we techno-geeks do.
While the science on global warming is a farce as far as we and most of the scientific world can see, that didn't mean that we have to trash the planet. We have to live here dirty, clean, hot or cold. I suggested that we at least recycle our cans. Given the number of them, we could use the money to buy recycled computer paper...or more soda.
We have been recycling our printer cartridges since that ability became available to us. The same is true of company cell phones, plastic and paper. OK, I admit that recycling the paper came later. But we have been doing it simply because it's cheaper. That's really the bottom line here.
For any business to stay in business you have to make enough money to pay the bills and the employees. Anything that is going to save money is going to be used. If the cost is negligible it might be something a company would do.
Locally we have had a nightmare with the regional electric company. The rates are incredibly high and highest in summer. Summers here are hot with temperatures well above 90 degrees. Computers and employees don't like to be that hot. In the summer our air conditioners never stop. The dehumidifiers never stop. So we are always looking at ways to decrease our energy usage.
One way we have found to decrease our energy usage is by upgrading to the newest energy efficient computer and printers when we upgrade. It doesn't cost any more to do that. We also make sure to use the sleep mode whenever possible. This uses far less energy than just leaving computers on in full mode.
Comments
Thanks for sharing how you saved money, as well as your honesty about how you feel about the experiment. I really enjoyed reading this - and learned some things, too!
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