Earth Day is finally here! Learn 5 Ways You Can Celebrate Earth Day!

Earth Day is finally here! Learn 5 Ways You Can Celebrate Earth Day!

5 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day 2020

 

5 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day 2020

 

Earth Day 2020 will be the 50th anniversary of Earth Day! Our friends at DoubleA Paper have provided several great ways for you to celebrate Earth Day this year.

Earth Day represents our responsibility to the planet and the importance of conserving nature. Since Earth Day began in 1970, we have seen increased concern for our planet and a rise in conservation efforts.

The years preceding the introduction of Earth Day were riddled with air pollution from inefficient vehicles and booming industrial trade. It was common for companies to expel large amounts of fossil fuels with no concern for the environment.

In 1969, a US senator named Gaylor Nelson witnessed a major oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. After experiencing the devastation of such an act, Nelson decided to fuse the energy of activism with conservation efforts. This pushed the importance of the environment into the national agenda. April 22, 1970, was declared the first official Earth Day. People from all walks of life joined in on the festivities and organized programs to support and promote environmentally friendly actions.

Celebrating Earth Day is a great chance to consider how you can help the environment. This sustainable holiday serves as a reminder of how we influence the planet. It encourages us to implement conservation efforts in our everyday lives and support environmental sustainability.

In honor of Earth Day, we gathered five ways to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Take a look at the sustainable activities below!

1. Plant a Tree for Earth Day 2020

Trees are among the most important organisms on our planet. They provide clean air for us to breathe, and provide homes for a multitude of wildlife. Trees have the amazing ability to improve our atmosphere over time by absorbing CO2 and converting it into breathable oxygen.

Trees also cool our planet by reducing pollutants from fossil fuels and other harmful chemicals.

Without trees, those harmful substances would stay in our atmosphere, heating our planet. For Earth Day 2020, plant a tree in your yard or with a local organization!

2. Start a Garden

Starting a garden is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and celebrate Earth Day. They are transported from factory farms to grocery stores, polluting the planet. Not to mention, most of them are packaged in plastic!

Planting your own garden will reduce the amount of fossil fuels used in transportation and decrease the production of waste. Gardens are also a great way to support the ecosystem in your community – they will encourage birds, insects, and other wildlife to visit!

3. Use Green or Reusable Products

Take a look at your home and notice opportunities to use more sustainable products. Many companies have taken action to create green products, in everything from clothing to utensils.

Consider switching out household goods with their more sustainable counterparts, and notice how easy it is to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle and support environmentally friendly companies.

4. Fundraise for a Sustainable Cause

Fundraising is a great way to give back to our planet, and there are so many amazing organizations working to better our environment. Some of these include the Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and The Natural Resource Defense Council.

Fundraising can be daunting, but there are plenty of sustainable products and services to sell for a good cause. You could sell reusable shopping bags to promote waste reduction. You could sell items such as organic seeds, fair trade coffee, or household conservation products like LED lights and reusable water bottles.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to fundraising. Make sure to let everyone know the proceeds are going to a good cause, and make sure to use sustainable paper for any fliers.

5. Join a Roots and Shoots Campaign

The Roots and Shoots program was created by Jane Goodall to bring generations together for conservation efforts. The organization has local chapters in over 140 countries with 8,000 groups globally. Members of the groups work on environmental issues within their community.
There is an entire curriculum that teaches you how to start a Roots and Shoots campaign for
free online.

Earth Day 2020 is the perfect opportunity to serve the environment. Many organizations and
communities come together to celebrate on April 22nd, but your efforts shouldn’t stop there.
Implementing sustainable action into your life is the best way to honor the Earth all year!

Environmentally friendly Double a Paper is available here Jacobs Gardner

7 Environmentally Friendly Office Products to Help Your Office Go Green

7 Environmentally Friendly Office Products to Help Your Office Go Green

Today’s businesses understand that eco-friendly offices are a trend that bears paying attention to, and our friends at Clover Technology have provided you with 7 of the very best ideas for creating an environmentally conscious businesses.

7 Environmentally Friendly Office Products

Making an effort toward sustainability within your organization can increase your competitive edge and boost revenue — as well as productivity and company morale.

In fact, it’s been proven that workers perform better in offices that emphasize environmentally friendly upgrades. And that can do more than ramp up productivity — it can also help your organization attract the kind of workers that make a real difference to the level at which your enterprise operates.

Let’s look at some simple, but powerful, ways you can boost your office’s eco-friendly quotient.

7 Environmentally Friendly Office Products to Help Your Office Go Green

With more than 8.5 million tons of office furniture making its way to our overburdened landfills each year, it’s no wonder that the best, easiest, and most cost-effective way you can green up your office is to look closely at reuse and recycling.

Our selection of environmentally friendly office products centers on items that will help your office not only reduce or eliminate waste and reduce your carbon footprint, but help you reuse where it’s appropriate.

1. Eliminate Single-Use Water Bottles with a Water Delivery Service

With plastic debris accounting for anywhere from 60% to 80% of all marine pollution, it’s no wonder that single-use plastics are under fire. Four states – California, New York, Maine, and Vermont – have passed bans on them and cruise lines, hotels, and other businesses are following suit.

You can green up your office and make a difference by swapping out single-use water bottles with a water delivery service and encouraging your employees to bring in their own refillable bottles for use in the office.

Water services range from hot/cold fountains that are super-filtered at the source to water that’s delivered in reusable BPA-free bottles to be chilled on an as-needed basis — it’s up to your team to decide which better serves your office environment.

2. Reduce Environmental Impact with Remanufactured Printer Cartridges

According to statistics, more than 375 million OEM cartridges thrown away each year, further clogging already overburdened landfills. And, when you recognize that it takes a single one of these cartridges nearly a thousand years to completely decompose, you can understand what an enormous environmental burden they are to the health of our planet.

Additionally, these cartridges have been tagged as “potentially carcinogenic” and in landfills they have been found to leach toxic chemicals into the soil that can reach all the way to underground aquifers, polluting our precious water resources.

Each remanufactured cartridge that you buy can contribute to your overall level of corporate responsibility and commitment to sustainable practices. With each purchase, you’re keeping another cartridge out of our landfills and averting a significant chain of impacts to the environment.

3. Replace Light Fixtures with LED Bulbs

A quick fix for a greener workspace involves converting your incandescent lighting to LEDs to maximize your energy efficiency. Because LEDs are so small, they put off less heat into the environment, which can, in turn, help you keep your thermostat stable and in energy conservation mode.

The energy efficiency of these bulbs means they don’t have to be changed as frequently and, since they last five to ten years, they aren’t being thrown into landfills and adding to our solid waste problems.

And, today’s wide array of LED designs means you can find practically any type of bulb you need, even in specialty sizes.

4. Consider Document Management Software to Cut Down on Paper

The average office worker uses up to 10,000 sheets of paper every year, but 45% of the paper printed in offices ends up in the trash by day’s end. That’s what makes investing in document management software important in curtailing excessive use of paper.

Document management software can help reduce the amount of time employees spend looking for hard-copy documents, which can increase productivity and it can help prevent the catastrophic loss that sometimes occurs when paper-based records are damaged.

However, remember that some important documents will need to be printed in hard copy form, which brings us to our next product — refurbished printers.

5. Choose Refurbished Printers to Manage Your Carbon Footprint

Even if you choose document management software, you will always need to print certain critical documents, so to keep it green, consider pairing your remanufactured print cartridge with a refurbished printer for maximum impact.

Not only will you be conserving energy and resources by buying a refurbished unit, but you can realize savings of 10-25% over a new unit. And, high-quality refurbished printers will perform as well — or better — than new versions and come with a warranty to protect against premature failure.

6. Buy Recycled Paper, Tissues, Paper Towels

Since we’re talking about greener printing, don’t forget to source your copy and printer paper from companies that offer recycled papers.

Recycled paper produces 39% less solid waste using 31% of the energy it takes to create virgin fiber paper. In addition, it takes 53% less water to produce and uses no trees.

In fact, it’s estimated that if the magazine industry switched to using 100% recycled paper, it would be like removing 248,000 cars from the road – for a whole year!

7. Use Refillable Whiteboard Markers

Dry erase markers are a staple in most conference rooms, allowing staff to brainstorm, organize, and make assignments during meetings and events. However, it’s often hard to find one that works when you need it, as they tend to dry out quickly.
A great way to keep them out of the trash — and avoiding frequent spending on new ones – is to purchase a refillable set. They come in all colors and can be refilled easily, at a fraction of the price of new markers.

Other Ways to Go Green for Maximum Benefit

Offices looking to become more sustainable might consider some of the following options to increase their commitment to developing an environmentally friendly work space:

Use renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power

Lower energy usage by using natural light to illuminate office spaces

Reduce commuting impact by hiring remote workers or promoting walking, biking, or public transportation

Turn off the lights, heat or air conditioning, and electronics on weekends, during holidays, and every evening after work

Remember, making a transition to a more environmentally friendly office not only helps heal our planet, it provides concrete benefits for businesses in the form of cost savings, productivity, and competitiveness.

And, while we can’t guide you on implementing all of these changes, if you’re ready to discover how remanufactured cartridges from Clover can maximize your sustainability while saving you money, contact your

Jacobs Gardner representative at 1-800-638-0983 or email: customercare@jacobsgardner.com

www.jacobsgardner.com

Desperately Seeking Biodegradable

Desperately Seeking Biodegradable

This month’s blog post comes to us from Double A Paper, the best choice for our environment. Their commitment to the environment is impressive and humbling, and their mission is to create “a better paper for a better world”.

Desperately Seeking Biodegradable

 

You’ve heard about biodegradable materials since grade school. But times have changed, and with all of the new synthetic materials available, it’s hard to know what’s biodegradable and what doesn’t fit the bill.

The true definition of biodegradable, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is “capable of being broken down, especially into innocuous products, by the action of living things (such as microorganisms).”

Are Plastics Biodegradable?

Believe it or not, some are. Those made with renewable raw materials, microorganisms, petrochemicals, or mixes of all three will break down. For example, polylactic acid (PLA) plastics are made from fermented plant starch and can be composted. In the right scenario, they will dissolve into the earth without a trace within three months; but could take as long as 100 – 1,000 years, depending on how much circulation they receive while composting or sitting in a landfill.

How About Styrofoam?

Amazingly, this material is still as non-biodegradable as it was when it was first produced. It can break down between a few years and a million years, but is more likely to be on the longer end of that estimate. Made with petroleum, this product has been banned by places like Orange County, California and Portland, Oregon.

If you’re looking for a biodegradable alternative, there are many options.

What Materials Are Definitively, Without a Doubt Biodegradable?

o Paper, including waxed paper
o Fruits and Vegetables
o Flowers
o Wood
o Some Plastics that Include Corn Oil, Orange Peel, Starch, and Plants

However, these materials must have the right conditions, such as a compost bin that will help break down the materials with heat, water, and microorganisms. Composting works by accelerating the natural decay process through offering microorganisms an optimal environment: nutrients, warm temperatures, oxygen, and moisture. They consume the composted materials and their waste products are nutrient rich soil, which can then be used for your garden or other growing area.

Many biodegradable materials make great composting. For example, any foods that are not meat, like vegetable peelings and ends, coffee grinds, egg shells, and even non-food items like paper towels and napkins. But don’t include any meat, animal waste, animal bones, or anything that would foster harmful bacteria and microorganisms.

What’s Not Biodegradable?

o Most Plastics
o Styrofoam
o Metals
o Chemicals
o Paint
o Rubber
o Glass

Some Biodegradable Alternatives to Try

o Instead of plastic, try biodegradable plastics
o Instead of Styrofoam, see if you can bring your own biodegradable container to a restaurant
o Instead of plastic bags, use your own reusable cloth tote or satchel
o Instead of foil, use wax paper
o Instead of plastic straws, use paper ones

Double A Paper is 100% biodegradable. We’re proud to offer a product that won’t harm the Earth, but we’re even more focused on the process of producing it, from seed to sapling to the letter you place on someone’s desk. One of our most important guiding tenets is sustainability.

Order your Double A Paper from www.jacobsgardner.com and feel the difference.