What Are Your Green Goals for 2009?

Here at TechSoup, we have been asked by our COO, Manning Sutton, to create individual and departmental green goals during our annual goal setting process. Below are some of his examples. What are some of your green goals for your office, library or school?

1. Turn off monitor at night (turning off your computer is coming once backup system changes in place)
2. Spread the word about GreenTech to others
3. Attend a Green brownbag at TechSoup Global
4. Setup and run a Green brownbag
5. Track your own or dept. paper usage.  Suggest ways to reduce.
6. Change power management settings on your laptop
7. Print on both sides, if you’re NOT doing so already
8. Limit your faxing: scan it and e-mail instead, if you can
9. Bring a reusable cup to the coffee shop for your daily intake…
10. Limit the use of personal heaters.  Bring a sweater to work.
11. Attend a Green webinar, and evangelize on the learnings
12. Turn your lights and fan off at night when you leave.
13. Spread the word – train your dept on recycling ideas
14. Make use of the “freecycle” table in the lounge!
15. Consider electronic presentations (via projector and posting online) vs. printing handouts (if appropriate)
16. Outside TSG:

• Ride your bike to work on a consistent basis
• Take mass transit more than you do today
• Carpool vs. drive by yourself
• Participate in a commute survey

Our main innitiative was to hire an environmental scientist to help guide and direct our environmental footprint. I'm sure this person will drive plenty of additional change, but at the moment we are in the process of implementing recycle bins at every area of the business, purchasing more environmentally friendly motor vehicles (I have just bought one of these), replacing all building general and emergency lights with low energey alternatives and greening as much outside space as possible to reduce solar radiation on the premises (to reduce the demand on air-conditioners).

1. Use and promote public transit

2. Prepare our infrastructure to virtualize our servers, reducing its physical footprint.

This blog entry on Recycling your Technotrash offers information on what sounds to me like a great resource for responsibly getting rid of old software, floppy disks, and unnecessary computer peripherals.

Best wishes,

Sasha

Considering assets are down 37% and income 50% my green goal for 2009 is to end it with the grass under our feet as opposed to the grass over our heads ;)

On a more serious note, I run a wildlife park that is also Indiana's first dark-Sky preserve so we already consider green to a certain degree.  I turned off the water heater, turned down the heat to 50 deg. and bout a ceramic heater more for budget reasons than to be green.

MIke