Today is Earth Day and we all know how important it is to consider our environmental choices—not just today, but every day. There are many ways that we, as writers, can make a difference. When it comes to reducing our environmental footprint, small steps can have a lasting impact. Become a green writer today.
Here are 10 things you can do now:
- Stop using disposable pens. How about a vintage fountain pen?
- Not working? Turn off computer & printer. Better yet–unplug them.
- Open the drapes and make use of natural (free) light.
- Replace the light bulbs in your office with energy efficient bulbs.
- Print on scrap paper. Print on both sides of paper. Purchase paper made from recycled sources. And remember to recycle your ink cartridges.
- Do as much of your business, bills, & marketing online.
- Getting rid of old equipment? Donate to charity or take to an electronics recycling centre (cell phones included).
- Review your subscriptions and put an end to junk mail.
- Reduce, reuse, & recycle. Find ways to apply all three in your office area.
- Educate others on the importance of Earth friendly practices at work, home, and in our communities.
BONUS: How about embedding environmental messages and behaviors in your writing (I love to do this!) Give your characters an environmental conscience.
Share your own great tips by replying to this post, and while you’re at it, tell us what you’re doing around your home or office to celebrate Earth Day.
Beckie
Andrea
bjas
Sharon
Maria
Restless Writers 
Lots of great tips, Beckie! I try to do as much double-sided printing as I can, and I also use the toner-save mode when I print out drafts or reference information.
Maria
What better to do on Earth Day than to calculate the amount of CO2 emitted when any of us does a Google search, tweets or sends a spam message? Can you guess which emits more CO2?
Well it turns out that if you get a spam email, it will have used 50% more power to get to you than a single Google search. But, you can tweet 15 times for the same amount of CO2 emissions! Crazy? Yes.
So, if you are feeling like a Spam-whore lately and worried about your carbon footprint, just remember that tweeting is 1,500% more efficient at getting your word out than spam mail. Don’t SPAM!
And maybe limit your googling too, because each search emits the same CO2 as driving an average car about 1 metre. That might not seem like much, but you can spend that energy on 10 tweets instead. Choose your poison. Which is more fun? Tweeting (that makes content) or googling, that just looks for content?
This message probably cost me the fuel it will take to back my car out the driveway tomorrow. (Yay, no commute to work for me – “Can’t… make… it… out… of… drive…. -way…., must… stay…….. home.)
If we would limit out search/tweet/spam budget to 1-kilometer’s worth of CO2 emissions per year, we would each have a budget of just 200 grams of CO2. That’s the weight of 5 Oh-Henry’s and equates to about 1,000 searches or 10,000 tweets. Again, choose your poison carefully, the Earth will thank you later.
Oh Hungry?? Have all you can tweet! (It’s cheaper:)
Happy Earth Day.
Here’s another green tip: how about choosing a laptop over a desktop? It uses about six times less electricity!