9 Tips to Make Your Home Business More Eco Friendly
May 26, 2011 Working at Home
Lots of stay at home moms run their own business from home too. It’s a nice way to add to the family’s income and enjoy your own interests. When eco friendly living is one of your goals, you should be certain you extend those goals to your home business as well. While in some ways home businesses are already green, using a space you already live in, there’s more you could be doing. Here are some ideas to help.
1. Make sure your niche is eco friendly.
You don’t have to go with specifically environmentally friendly items with your business, but if you’re trying to be eco friendly in your personal life while selling things that are decidedly not eco friendly, how green are you really?
Of course, not all business ideas have much of anything to do with the environment as such. If you’re working as a virtual assistant there are only so many ways to be any more eco friendly than the next virtual assistant. But if you’re selling products, do consider the environmental impact of the products you sell.
2. Do as much as you can online.
You may or may not be able to do all of your business online or over the telephone, but do what you can. Keep in contact with customers through email. Have your website with an eco friendly hosting company. Host Gator and Dreamhost, for example, have programs in place to keep their carbon emissions down, through things such as wind power and carbon credits.
You can do a lot of banking and bill paying online too. If you’re involved in affiliate marketing, you can look into direct deposit for your earnings, rather than having to take checks to the bank. This may be possible with other home businesses too.
3. Choose eco friendly promotional materials.
When you do promote your business offline, look for options that are kinder to the environment, such as mailers made from recycled paper.
4. Minimize printing.
Some people love to print things out. With a little practice, you can devise a filing system on your computer so that you don’t have to print out all the things you receive. Try to only print out the things you actually need to have on paper.
5. Drive only when you have to.
Having a home business doesn’t always mean you don’t drive for your business. Sometimes it’s necessary. You may be involved in a home party plan and have to go to people’s houses, for example, or your business may involve going to see your clients in person.
Try to make the times you must drive more efficient. Walking or taking public transportation aren’t glamorous ways to get there, but they can work when the distances and times are appropriate.
If you need some time to work out of the house, just to get away, think of ways to do that without driving. Is there a park or coffee shop you like to work at that’s in reasonable walking distance?
6. Turn electronics and lights off when not needed.
When you’re done for the day or for a long enough time, make sure to shut down computers, printers and so forth, as well as turn off all the unnecessary lights. A Smart Strip
7. Recycle your old electronics.
Don’t just throw away old computers, cell phones and so forth when it’s time to replace them. Find out how to recycle them properly. Local governments sometimes have specific days when you can take in electronic waste, or you can check on the EPA website.
8. Add a plant to your office (and elsewhere in your home).
Plants are great. They’re relaxing to look at and they freshen the air in your home. Not only should you keep one or more in your home office, you should get a few for around the house.
9. Go energy efficient.
Energy efficiency isn’t just for lightbulbs, although CFLs
Tags: eco friendly home business, energy star, online home business
Is Working at Home or Shopping Online Really the Most Eco Friendly Option?
Sep 22, 2010 Environmentally Friendly, Working at Home
A part of what I love about working at home is that it’s so eco friendly. I don’t have to drive to work. Most days I don’t drive anywhere, in fact. I use some electricity around the house, but I don’t think it’s all that much.
I also enjoy shopping online when it’s practical. I don’t do much of that, as most of the shopping I do in general is for groceries. I don’t buy a lot of things, and so I don’t often have something that I can buy online.
I found this press release claiming that it’s less eco friendly to work at home or shop online very interesting. Very much so counter intuitive, and I can’t say that I entirely agree with it, even though I don’t have numbers to back me up.
Some of the trouble is that it’s hard to tell where all of the data comes from. Are they considering all factors well enough?
From the press release:
The research reveals that people who shop online must order more than 25 items otherwise the impact on the environment is likely to be worse than traditional shopping.
It also highlights that working from home can increase home energy use by as much as 30 per cent, and can lead to people moving further from the workplace, stretching urban sprawl and increasing pollution
A part of the challenge is that it doesn’t say how they’re assuming the shopping is done or how they’re calculating the carbon cost of the shipping. I hope the full report does that. It’s hard to calculate, especially when you consider that much of the carbon cost of getting a package shipped to your home would happen whether or not you bought something. That cargo plane is still going to fly, that delivery truck is very likely to go through your neighborhood to deliver a package to someone else. These aren’t things that can easily be accounted for.
On the other hand, if you’re using public transportation to go shopping, the same could be said of the carbon cost of that shopping trip. It’s near enough there either way.
The working at home bit can be really tricky. As I own my own business, of course it’s more eco friendly to run it from home. I don’t need an entirely separate office, and I don’t have any transportation costs. My computer and so forth are things I would own anyhow. I live where I do so that my husband can get to his job.
But if you’re working for someone else, there are more variables to consider. Do they have office space available for those who work part of the time at home and part at the office? Are all their workers spread out? Does this, as the report suggests, encourage them to live further from urban areas?
I have a sister who works for an entirely virtual company. They don’t have offices, and their employees are spread out across the United States. Are they more or less energy efficient than one that requires all their employees to work in offices? I know their costs are significantly less than companies that pay for office space. Is it more eco friendly? I don’t know.
The trouble with this kind of report is that the right answer is extremely variable. It depends on where you live, what you’re buying, and so forth. I don’t think there is one right answer, although anything that makes us rethink our assumptions isn’t an entirely bad thing.
Tags: eco friendly choices, green lifestyle, online shopping, what's green?, work at home
7 Ways to Make Your Home Office More Eco Friendly
Jul 15, 2010 Working at Home
Even if you don’t work at home as I do, you probably have some sort of a home office set up in your home. It’s a place to keep the computer and various papers you need. It’s a quiet place to work when you need to get something done.
You may not have given much thought to how much energy you use in your home office. It’s one of those rooms where it’s easy to have bad habits. These are some basic fixes that you should consider for your home office and possibly other rooms.
1. Turn Off the Computer at Night
Lots of people just leave their computer on all of the time. It’s easy, and then you don’t have to wait for it to boot up in the morning, which can be annoying. But it also wastes energy.
If you can’t bear the thought of turning your computer on a few minutes before you’re ready to use it, at least make sure it goes to sleep mode when you’re away from it.
2. Beware the Phantom Loads
When you shut down your computer, do all the accessories turn off too? The monitor, the printer, the speakers? If they don’t they’re still drawing power.
You should of course not bother to even turn on accessories that you won’t be using anyhow. My printer is rarely powered on, for example, because I very rarely use it.
Get a Smart Strip
Alternatively, you can remember to turn off the power to your current surge protectors. That works too, just be sure that anything that needs to keep power isn’t on that line.
3. Consider a Laptop Computer
When the time comes to replace your computer, consider a laptop model
4. Make Recycling Convenient to Your Home Office
You may or may not make a lot of paper trash in your home office, but if you do, make sure you’re ready to recycle that paper. A bin just for recyclables is easy to put in a corner or under the desk.
Also have a place to keep your empty printer cartridges for recycling. Some places will pay you to bring them in. Check with your local office supply store.
5. Reuse Paper When Possible
How often do you really need a fresh sheet of paper. Most printing is done on only one side, and you may only need the printout a short time. Take advantage and save paper for a second use for those times that you don’t need a fresh sheet.
Don’t forget to buy post consumer recycled paper
6. Take Advantage of Natural Lighting When Possible
Why turn on a light if the sun can do the same job for free? This isn’t a good idea all year – if the heating from the sun during the summer is making you need the air conditioner you’d be smarter to block it and use a lamp to see by, but otherwise enjoy natural sunlight.
7. Bring in a House Plant
Plants clean the air naturally. They look better than an air purifier too. Plants add a touch of beauty to any room and give you a chance to express your personality.
Tags: eco friendly home office
Can You Really Go Green By Working at Home?
May 10, 2010 Working at Home
Lots of people want to work at home. For most it has nothing to do with going green and everything to do with dreams. The dreams of a more leisurely lifestyle. The dreams of more time for their family. The dreams of an income they can barely imagine.
But working at home isn’t all about that. It can also be about being more eco friendly.
I’ve worked at home since late 2001. It’s mostly been fun, but also stressful, and I’m still far from the wild dream so many have of hitting it rich. But then I haven’t always had a home business either.
If you’re looking at working at home and wondering if there’s a shortcut to getting started without getting scammed, I’ll tell you the answer right now:
Maybe.
Whether or not there’s a shortcut depends on what you do right now. You see, it’s possible that your current job could become at least a partial work at home job if it’s the right sort of job.
That’s right, you could telecommute from your current position if that’s possible within your company.
This is obviously not possible for everyone. If you have to deal with people face to face, it’s not going to happen. If your job otherwise requires your physical presence every day, it’s not going to happen. But if that’s not the case, it might be possible. Or not. Much depends on the company you work for.
Go in and talk to your boss. Find out if telecommuting even one day a week is an option. With luck, you’ll get a positive answer.
If it’s a no, but you think you could telecommute to your current job, start working on changing the policy. Find out why the answer was no and figure out how to counter those arguments. Sometimes it can be done.
What If You Can’t Telecommute from Your Current Job?
Many people just don’t have that telecommute option for one reason or another. It’s a drag, but it’s real life.
If you’re serious about working from home, it’s time to start looking.
When you’re considering the eco side of working from home, be sure that you consider that as you job hunt. There’s not much eco to working for companies that generally don’t respect the environment.
You’re also going to have to learn about work at home scams. The dratted things are all over the place. Be extremely skeptical of any and all job offers, especially the ones which sound too good to be true. I run another website, Home with the Kids, which has a lot of tips on avoiding work at home scams you might want to read.
Most work at home jobs pay on production rather than hourly. This makes sense, as it means that they don’t have to worry about if you’re being productive during the hours you said you’d work. If you’re not productive, you’re just not getting paid!
What About a Home Business?
It’s amazing how many home business opportunities there are out there. You could join an eco friendly network marketing opportunity. You could do affiliate marketing. You could start your own website. You could do some other kind of business.
There are so many ways you could start a home business if that’s what interests you. The internet has opened things up tremendously.
The challenge is that there is never a guarantee that your home business will allow you to make a living. Running a business is hard work. If you want to succeed, you’re going to have to give it everything you’ve got and keep pushing through even when it seems like nothing is going right. Expect it to be hard and you won’t be disappointed.
Don’t trust any of the people who tell you it’s going to be easy to earn six figures in a year (or worse, a month!) working from home. People who earn that kind of money are very much the exception to the rule. Just as with any other kind of business, most home businesses fail. If you want to do a home business you had better be prepared for that.
Set Up Your Work Space
If you can telecommute or otherwise find a way to work from home, you’re going to need a good space to work from home. A dedicated home office is best, especially if you need quiet for your work, and some jobs do have that as an absolute requirement.
You can work from any place you can set your computer up if your work allows it.
You will want to be as free from distractions as possible wherever you set up. You don’t want to get started working and find that you’re unproductive because the TV is on or the kids are playing or anything like that.
Make sure that any supplies you buy as as eco friendly as possible. You shouldn’t be buying new gear unless it’s absolutely necessary. That includes your computer, which of course will be tempting to upgrade, but do you really need a newer machine or is the one you have quite capable of doing all you need it to do?
This May Take Time
For most people, getting to work at home isn’t something that happens overnight. It may take months to find the right opportunity or to get your current job to start a telecommuting program. Be patient.
If you’re starting something new, don’t be surprised if it takes time to earn an adequate income. Even when it’s a job rather than a home business it takes time to figure things out well enough that you earn what you’d like. Work hard at it just the same and find something that works for you.
Tags: green home business, telecommuting
Is the Watkins Home Business Opportunity Green?
Jan 26, 2010 Working at Home
Joining a direct sales or network marketing opportunity is just about traditional for stay at home moms who want to earn some money. It’s been going on a long time, more than 100 years.
Watkins is one of the oldest direct sales companies out there. They’ve had good times and bad times, as any business will, but they’re still around.
And pretty nicely green so far as I can tell.
They focus on using natural, environmentally friendly and renewable ingredients in their products. They have an organic spice line. They even started selling natural cleaners in 1917.
The company tries for a small environmental footprint. They have a recycling program and use biodegradable packaging where possible.
For those looking for a green direct sales opportunity, this may be a good choice. You’ll be able to sell personal care products, gourmet products, home remedies and more.
Tags: direct sales, green home business, green work at home, network marketing, watkins
