Printing is so easy to do that it’s not hard to forget it can be pretty harmful to the environment. After all, it’s just one push of a button and a few sheets of paper, right? In reality, the chemicals contained in the ink you print will couple with the energy-consuming machinery that gets the printing done and the reams of paper that you’ll go through in a year to create an office task primed for negative environmental effect. The greenest thing you can do when it comes to printing is to not do it at all, but in today’s office that’s often far from realistic. Many of us may have switched to e-mail for most of our communications and even done away with printed notes during meetings and presentations, but there are still times when one has to put it on paper. Here are five ways to green your printing.

1. Choose an Eco-Friendly Font

For most of us, the only consideration when selecting a font is what will look best for the document, but the font you pick can be responsible for a little ink use or a lot of ink use and one of the ways to print greener is to use less ink. Steer clear of heavy fonts or anything in bold and opt for lighter fonts (often in the Serif family) with thinner lines. Better yet, download Ecofont. Ecofont is a font based on Vera Sans that’s been reworked with holes throughout to use 20% less ink—and it’s free to download and use.

2. Opt for Energy Star

If you’ve got a printer that’s in fine working order, we’re not saying you should send it to recycling and pick up a new Energy Star-rated model (buying unnecessarily is never green), but if you’re in the market for a new printer, make sure you look for that little Energy Star logo. Energy Star printers use less energy and can save you over $100 on your energy bill during their lifetimes. Take it a step further, though, by choosing an Energy Star-rated printer that’s also remanufactured or made from recycled materials. Click here to read more

Powered by Bookmarkify™

For the second time, GreenerGadgets.com and and Core77.com have partnered to host the Greener Gadgets Design Competition–the goal being the creation of some creative takes on going green. They’ve chosen the Top 50 Entries to feature online and you can get in on the decision-making process now by voting for your favorite gadget on the Greener Gadgets Design Competition website. Voting will determine the Top 10, which will be judged live at this year’s Greener Gadgets Conference in New York on February 27th.

The gadgets range from surprisingly simple to quizzically complex and cover a host of different green endeavors, but if you’re looking for a few front runners that also happen to be some of our favorites, here are five Greener Gadgets with great potential. Don’t forget to cast your vote by Friday, February 20th!

LIGHTIMUS
The design is a sleek throwback to the hour glasses of years long gone by, but the purpose of the LIGHTIMUS slants more toward a product of the future. On one side, solar panels absorb light; on the other, LED bulbs give light. During the day, you would flip your LIGHTIMUS solar-side up to catch some rays and in the evening you would lift the LED-side for a bright glow that lasts up to 8 hours.
Pro: Gives new meaning to “turning up the lights”.
Con: If you’re in the dead of winter and the days are dark and snowy, the LIGHTIMUS won’t be shining bright.

CompostAll
If more of us composted it would mean more of us were cultivating gardens, which would mean more of us were growing some of our own food, which would push us in the direction of more sustainable food patterns. Many of us, however, find the garbage disposal to be an easier option than a bucket of leeching leftovers on the counter. The CompostAll gives you the convenience of grinding up remnants, but stores the “mulch” for you to take out to fertilize some future food.
Pro: Could be the key to lazy composting.
Con: Details on the sorting system are a little vague and there are smell issues that could arise.

Watt Blocks
Standby or “vampire” power sucks. It can even suck about $100 of your home’s yearly power costs. Enter  Watt Blocks. You plug the cube-shaped Watt Blocks into an outlet and the electronic device with Twilight traits into the Watt Block. Then you plug the master switch (think a mini guitar pedal that’s attached to a cell phone charger) into an outlet near the front door. Every time you’re headed out a quick tap of the foot petal will initialize the Watt Blocks to block power to the devices plugged into them.
Pro: Even as more of us are alerted to the issue of vampire power, the inconvenience of unplugging everything has kept most from changing the situation. This is easy.
Con: The master pedal for Watt Blocks could be a little too easy for kids and pets to control. Click here to read more

Powered by Bookmarkify™