Lowering the Costs of Christmas

December 21, 2011 · Recycling · Comments Off

You’d think the cold weather which forces homeowners to turn to their central heating for comfort is a big enough concern for the winter months, but that’s only the half of it. Accompany this costly expense with the prolonged use of the oven to perfect that Christmas turkey and the abundance of festive decorations, which illuminate the home, and you could end up with rather hefty utility bills.

In order to keep your costs to a reasonable amount you have to be careful with how much energy you use. Bad habits such as leaving the television and lights on whilst unattended will have to be kicked to the curb in order to indulge in festive frivolities.

Switch to Renewable Energy

Alternative methods of energy such as solar panels can really help to relieve the strain of energy bills as they allow you to produce your own energy completely free of charge. Although they’re supplemented by energy from the national grid, they can help to drastically reduce your energy bills. This can be a great help over the festive period, particularly for powering those Christmas lights! Although daylight is shorter in the winter months, solar panels are still functional and homeowners still reap the financial benefits of switching to the cleaner, greener renewable energy resource.

Avoid buying too Much Food

Food waste is rife over the festive period as homeowners take to the supermarkets and buy an abundance of food for entertaining – most of which gets wasted. Food doesn’t come cheap so it can really eat into your finances if you buy unnecessary food and drink which is only destined for the bin. One of the best ways to avoid this is to shop online, as there a fewer deals and offers there to tempt you as there are in the aisles of a supermarket. If you do decide to brave the supermarkets then take a list and stick to it!

Turn it off

Although it can be tempting to leave your Christmas decorations on whilst you’re out to show off to the neighbours, if money’s tight then turn off the lights! Many homeowners leave their outdoor decorations on in their absence and whilst they look very pretty it all seems rather pointless if they’re not there to enjoy themselves! Much like regular lights in your home, make sure they’re turned off if you’re not there to enjoy them to save some money!

If you’re worried about the effects of Christmas on the environment then why not invest in some recycled wrapping paper which reduces the need for deforestation? Recycled wrapping paper is available from a variety of office supplies retailers and gift shops.

Avoid leaving your bank account dry for January by being careful over Christmas. It can be an incredibly expensive time of year and energy bills can further increase those expenses. Be sure to be stern with the rest of the family too, who may haphazardly leave electrical equipment on whilst unattended – remind them who’s paying the bills!

This post was originally published on Solvis’ blog and can be found here

Going Green in the Office Whilst Staying in the Black

April 19, 2011 · Recycling, office environment, office supplies · Comments Off

I was fortunate enough to be able to write this guest post on Eco-Office Gals website.

Eco-friendly office

With Global Warming having shocking effects around the globe, do your bit to help the environment by keeping your workplace green.

When it comes to wastage, offices can be one of the main culprits. With such busy schedules and deadlines to meet, saving the environment can be one of the last things on a worker’s mind. Simple tasks such as reprinting documents unnecessarily and repetitively boiling the kettle all have their negative effect on the big wide world. Typical thoughts can be “it won’t make a difference if I do it just this once” but what about the thousands of other like-minded people? What happens when they leave the light on “just this once”?

The colour green symbolises many things, one being nature and eco-friendliness and another being wealth and money. By following the advice on this page you can be green in both senses, by saving the environment whilst being cost effective. Of course there are obvious, everyday tasks which can reduce costs, here are just a few.

  • Energy saving light bulbs – these can fit into the majority of light fixtures and give out as much light as a regular bulb, whilst lasting longer and using only 20-35% of the electricity of an equivalent regular bulb.
  • Switch off electronic equipment which isn’t in use. Computers and the like tend to get left on in offices, costing the earth – in both senses.
  • Where possible, print on both sides of the paper. This will half the amount of paper going through your printer, saving money on paper as opposed to wasting a perfectly good side of paper.

In addition to energy saving tasks, there are also office products and stationery which can be purchased to make your office more eco-friendly. When purchasing new products look out for if they are recycled/recyclable. There an array of recycled items, some less commonly used such as:

  • Fire extinguishers – although you wouldn’t think it some of these can be recycled. Just make sure you put the fire out before recycling…
  • Recycled calculators – these are particularly interesting as not only do they run off solar power, they are also made from recycled materials making them incredibly sustainable gadget.
  • Recycling wall chart – keep everyone aware of the amount of recycling that takes place in the office and raise awareness for people to suggest more eco-friendly initiatives. Make sure the wall chart is also recyclable!

Yes, going green is that easy. No need to forget those all-important deadlines whilst reducing your carbon footprint. So before you leave the light on in a hurry to get home, take a step back and think “just this once, I can make a difference”.

Five Top Tips For Lightening The Office Gloom

April 12, 2011 · Recycling, a bit of fun, office environment, office supplies, stationery · Comments Off

Okay, so you’re thinking how can stationary possibly change the desk dynamic? There’s always going to be drawling silence that only the photocopier manages to break. Or the humdrum lady who enjoys sharing the most interesting photographs of her offspring, wearing a coating of chocolate, on different climbing apparatus in the park. Well at least it’s better than hearing about your male supervisor’s divorce that he just can’t come to terms with whilst trying to avoid the stale whiskey from his breath that circulates the confined space every time the fan chooses to direct gusts into your face. Well, by bringing some colour and contrast to the situation you can leave the Monday feeling strictly for Mondays.

Here, I have conjured up a list of essential stationary do’s and don’ts when spicing up your stationary so you can become the ray of sunshine that slowly tans a smile onto your colleagues’ pale faces.

DO invest in some funky stationary.

Colour is the key here, the bolder and brighter the better. Think rainbow pens which you can lend to the duller of your colleagues which will make for some cheerful note taking. Plus, the vibrant colours ensure they won’t get lost as easily as the regular ball point option. You could even go green, in the eco (and colour) sense, with DGOS as they have an abundance of recycled stationery that covers every category of the colour chart, so you’ll be helping the environment whilst watching everyone go green with envy at your new purchases.

DON’T copy off your colleagues.

Be original! Bring in your original office supplies and before you can say “stationary cupboard” you’ll have everyone chatting to each other rather than cursing at their monitors. Try to bring in interesting stationary that aren’t run of the mill. Never forget a message again with these neon pink and purple pads.

DO have a large clock visible to all involved.

Refrain from chewing your rainbow pens by clock watching instead! Everyone’s guilty of it so why deny it anymore? Plus, it helps you to prioritise your workload more efficiently if you have constant track of the time.

DON’T be surprised if your stationary starts to go missing.

We all know how irritating it is when we can’t place a vital piece of equipment and then it “appears” on your colleague’s desk. An investment into furniture, cabinets and padlocks could curb wandering possessions and reduce the expenditure on replacing equipment.

DON’T use your new stapler as a weapon.

This manoeuvre could undo all the magical stationary dust that has been sprinkled over your newly revitalised work mates. Also, it won’t go down well with a health and safety assessor.

All things said and done, a revamp of your working environment could really give the atmosphere a lift and maybe even spark a whole new passion for work! Fair enough, we’re not promising miracles, but a touch of colour and variety could add some fun and happiness and who wouldn’t want that?

The Solar Powered Calculator Was Just The Beginning…

April 4, 2011 · Recycling, news, office environment, office politics · Comments Off

The Solar Powered Calculator was just the beginning…

Our good friends (and renewable energy experts) at Solarlec have kindly written a guest blog for us about solar power in the 21st Century. We hope you’re as surprised and intrigued as we were when we first read it!

solar powered calculatorThe first solar powered calculator was released in 1976 by Sharp. Catchily named the EL-8026 this trailblazer featured solar panels on the back of the calculator and was considerably less efficient or indeed practical than the solar calculators we’re accustomed to today. Although cumbersome, expensive and prone to power-outage on cloudy days or at night – the EL-8026 opened the door to a huge host of sunshine fuelled devices and new applications for photovoltaics (solar panels or solar cells to you and I).

portable solar charger

Sticking with the pocket sized end of the solar powered spectrum there are now an abundance of items which allow you to harness the power of sunlight to charge small electronic devices including mobile phones, PDAs and even netbooks and laptops. A modern portable solar charger is able to convert natural light (not necessarily just direct blazing sunlight) into usable battery charge. Developments in photovoltaic technology allow you to fully charge a spent phone battery in a couple of hours- even if it’s overcast outside. As well as being incredible useful whilst camping or caught without access to mains electricity, portable solar chargers save on the cost of using electricity from the grid and are entirely without carbon consequence for each new charge.

domestic solar panels

When this concept and principle are scaled up, so are the benefits. A decent sized home solar panel installation allows you to reap the positives of the portable charger on a considerably grander scale and with a significant positive impact on your finances. An average sized domestic solar panel system is capable of producing around 1400kWh/year. To put this into context, a standard laptop computer used for 10 hours a day, 365 days a year will generally use less than 200kWh/year – allowing those who work from home to genuinely boast of carbon neutrality…and of course benefit from energy overheads in and around the zero mark. Courtesy of the UK government’s Feed in Tariff scheme, those who opt to have domestic solar panels fitted to their home will also receive money for every unit of electricity they produce (whether they use it or not) – ultimately resulting in a net profit on the outlay for the solar panels in a short period of time.

google solar panels

The cost-effective scalability of solar power extends far beyond even the realms of roof fitted domestic systems. In 2007 internet giant Google invested in one of the largest solar panel installations in the United States. Later in that year they released some statistics showing just how much power their solar panels were producing on average per day. The fascinating results showed that per day they generated enough energy through photovoltaics to run a flat screen television for 5366 hours or perform 402 dishwasher cycles.

So whether you’re simply in the market for a new calculator, looking to make a modest investment or brainstorming on how to power a vast office complex don’t neglect the solar power option!

Far From Rubbish – It’s Remarkable

December 7, 2010 · Recycling, news, office supplies, stationery · Comments Off

Eco-geniuses Remarkable (Remarkable Pencils Ltd) are a company who truly and fully live up to their name by creating unique and exciting products…from waste! These British based pioneers started on their green journey a number of years ago when they found an effective way of turning discarded plastic cups into pencils. Having refined and expanded the process they now produce somewhere around 40,000 or these ex-cup pencils a day.

Recycled Pencils

Not content with merely transforming plastic cups into something genuinely useful, Remarkable have turned their attention to recycling a world of other disposable and discarded objects into funky, new and eco-friendly items. From rulers made out of recycled CD cases, to notebooks of recycled paper with covers that were plastic retail packaging in a previous life and even ballpoint pens made out of obsolete games consoles.

Recycled Notepad

By making a point of the provenance of the recycled material within their products, Remarkable are pushing the boundaries of recycled office supplies. Their commitment to converting useless items into useful ones and using this as a selling point sets a great example to other companies and helps the end user to feel that they have made a positive impact on the environment. With a constant stream of new Remarkable products hitting the market and all manner of new materials being used (including recycled car tyres and corn starch), this UK business are a breath of fresh air…and have an ethos to help maintain fresh air for the rest of us!

If you would like to stay up to date with the remarkable folks at Remarkable then be sure to visit their blog.

To get great deals on a range of Remarkable products click here.