10 tips for greening your startup

Danny Cohen from Gemini started a great thread titled "All Startups should be Green" (disclosure: Gemini is an investor in my company, outbrain). I couldn't agree more (OK - I already confessed to being a tree hugger in the past...).

I thought the best way to promote this idea, is by listing 10 super-practical tips for things you can do in your startup and help the planet be a little better off:

1. Print double-sided: It never stops to amaze me how 99% of the office print-outs are done on a single-side of paper. You can easily save 50% of the paper consumption by simply checking the "print duplex" option in your printer settings (most office printers support this feature).
   The only documents that should be printed single-sided are: documents you need to feed into a fax or a copier, and final versions of legal documents (those will eventually end up in copiers down the road).
   
   
2. Don't do tchochkes[1] - This one is particularly annoying to me, because it's a classic lose-lose-lose situation. It's beyond me why any company wastes money on crap that no one even wants (who the hell uses a mouse pad?!?!), that reflects badly on your brand, and that absolutely sucks for the environment??[2]
   
   
3. Install a water filter - Bottled water is evil evil evil. There is not a single reason in the world to drink bottled water in an office environment. Instead, install a simple filter in the kitchen sink, and use that. You (or your employees) will also save a ton of money.
   
   
4. Print locally - I confess to making this stupid mistake many times in the past. If you're going to exhibit in a big conference, you're probably preparing a ton (literally) of marketing materials. The most obvious way to do this is - print everything with the printer closest to your office, and then FedEx it to the conference.
   But it turns out that boxes of paper are probably the most wasteful thing that you can stick on a plane. So instead, spend 10 minutes online and find a print shop that will take your PDF and run the print job locally (where "locally" means where you're going to use the materials, not where your office is located...). Again - you'll not only help save the planet, but also save big $$'s...
   This tip is especially true for companies in Israel...
   
   
5. ...or even better - don't print! - Even better than points #1 and #4 above is - don't print at all! PDF's are so much more friendly to the environment...
   
   
6. If you ship physical products, don't package them with crap - Packaging materials, especially most of the foams and polystyrene (Kalkar for our Hebrew-speaking readers) are the worst offenders to the environment as they use up a lot of volume, and never break down.
   
   
7. Embed green in your products - The best example I've seen recently is Google Maps. When you print a Google Map, this little message shows up on the paper... excellent! --->
8. Reduce junk mail - I use a service called GreenDimes, and I highly recommend it (though I think it's US-only for now).
   
   
9. Switch to CFL's - This is a real no-brainer... switch your office lighting to CFL's (compact fluorescent light bulbs), and you will not only help the planet, but also save $$'s on your electric bills.
   
   
10. Plant a tree - we sometimes get so obsessed with hybrids and recycling and forget the simple things. If you have a patio or a campus that allows for it - plant an occasional tree.
    

Have a good practical tip? List it in the comments below.

Also, if you found this useful, why not digg it and help spread the word?

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[1] I guess that 'promotional crap' is the best definition I can think of...

[2] I can guarantee you that the stupid stress balls you got for 2c-per-unit (logo slapping included) were not manufactured with sustainability as the top priority...

Comments

[Rogel]

Saving paper might be a good money saving idea, but I doubt it has anything with saving the environment: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=67623834-a1af-42e4-91cb-28492a462651

:)

[Yaron Galai]

Thanks Rogel - interesting article!... I never heard that take on de-forestation, but it makes sense.
But as it relates to paper - I will stick to my tips... I've seen how office paper is manufactured. I don't know how much of it actually has to do with trees anymore. But I do know that the amount of crap that goes into manufacturing it (bleaching, water, etc) is just insane. Believe me... - we want as little of that junk being made as possible...

[Yaron Galai]

Apropo -
We've been educated to think that recycling is always good, and if we recycle our garbage then it's OK to consume lots of it.
It's time to get real about this too... recycling in most cases *sucks*. It might suck less than creating landfills, but it still sucks. In the paper example above, you need to bleach the recycled paper and process it so much that I'm not sure what's preferable to the environment - recycling or cutting new trees with fresh pulp.
So instead of thinking how to recycle, we should really try to consume less.

(another thing we should do is think cradle-to-cradle... I'll do a full post about that separately).

[Ori lahav]

that's a good one.

but how about business cards,
you usually print several hundreds of them - use about a 10th and the rest are thrown away when your contact details are changed.

email address is much more stable and also your online contact details in places like plaxo or other ecard services.

so why not print your email and URL on a card which is 1/6 of the size of a normal business card and save some trees. Use this one only if you need to do the rest of the contact exchange by, sending emails or ecards from your cell device to the other.

[Dan Pelleg]

Switch to a blank screensaver. An active screensaver just burns CPU cycles, which not only take electricity directly, but also need more power to be cooled away by your A/C. The power costs of a server over its lifetime could easily exceed its purchase cost.

Don't forget to turn off (not just blank) the display when it's idle. That may mean pressing a button when you leave your desk for the night or weekend.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator. You'll get some exercise, too.

[[heartbeat]]

Great tips but i disagree on the fluourescent lights..

They cause a great deal of eye strain, though some types more than others.

The AC current in homes and offices oscillates at 50/60Hz, which is ~60 times a second. That is how often your eyes have to refocus due to the fact that the fluorescent bulb blinks.

I personally can hardly read 12-14pt text under that light...if i hold it up to my face i can, but i'm sure it looks a bit stupid

Now LEDs are a real win-win...after the initial investment...

[Yaron Galai]

Thanks for the tip [heartbeat]! Good points...