Afinety’s 9 Easy Tips to Help You Practice Green Technology

1. Recycle Retired Electronics. If you're not sure where to donate out-of-use electronics, Recycles.Org can match you up with nonprofit agencies that use old equipment. By 2011, more than 400 million PCs will have been purchased as replacements for current home and office computers.  If you are an Afinety client and have HP hardware, recycling your unwanted or retired PCs and peripheral devices is even easier. HP takes their Green Technology policies very seriously. They offer various options for managing your used products. To read more, visit HP’s online recycling center today. 
2. Telecommute Once a Week. If all commuters worked from home just one day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil each year. (Environmental Defense Fund ) – To read more on Virtual Office best practices and remote work options such as RAS, check out the Afinety Blog article today.
3. Recycle Your Printer Cartridges. Take your HP printer cartridges to Staples for recycling and you will get a $3 coupon for ink or toner. (Staples.com) Energy Star 4.0 is quite stringent, demanding highly efficient power supplies and very-low-power idle modes. (energystar.gov)
4. Stop Overcharging Your Laptop Battery. These days it's not uncommon for laptops to serve desktop duty. But here's the rub: If you leave the battery inside the system 24/7, it'll keep drawing power, even when fully charged. That's not only a waste of energy and money, but also bad news for the battery: Constant charging will reduce its capacity to hold a charge and its overall longevity.  Fortunately, there's a fast and simple solution: Pull the battery out. Most notebooks can run off AC power when there's no battery present, so take the latter out of the equation. It'll stay in pristine condition and save you a kilowatt or two. Estimated savings: A few dollars on your monthly electric bill and $120 on premature battery replacement.
5. Let One Device Handle the Workload of Three. Try an all-in-one device, such as HP’s LaserJet M3035 Multifunction Printer and handle your printing, scanning, copying, and faxing all in one device. This will save you space, electricity, and device maintenance and replacement costs down the road.
6. Give Your PC a Nap. Set the "sleep" (power management) settings on your computer to automatically turn your monitor, hard drive or entire system off after specific periods of inactivity, and ask your organization to implement a policy on it. Save money and electricity! 
7. Use Smarter Power Strips. Save money and electricity when they automatically turn off your accessories (i.e., monitor, speakers, printer) when you shut down your computer!
8. Eliminate the Fax Machine Altogether. Use electronic fax solutions, such as MyFax, and eFax, Internet-based secure fax services. Reduce your need for paper, toner and hardware and save money, paper and toxics in landfills!
9. Attempt At Least One of the Steps to Becoming a Less-Paper Office. It’s important to note that the “Less-Paper” office is all about reducing your dependency on paper through various emerging technologies and operational approaches. Try doing more emailing than faxing, use full-cycle document management solutions, or install PDF distillers on every machine. For more “less-paper” office tips, visit the Afinety Blog article today.