Toilet Paper Roll Flowers

I have a vast number of tissue paper rolls thanks to my office mates. I have so many that I don't even know what to do with them anymore, so I scoured Google for ideas, and I just have to share these 2 with you:

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These are wonderful and decorative ideas for tissue paper rolls - not to mention easy, and I can't wait to get started on these. I can see a few of these flowers sitting prettily on my office desk.

For tutorials on how to make these flowers, you can visit:

http://impressyourkids.org/earth-day-recycled-art-paper-tube-flowers/ for the daisy

and

http://designbynight.blogspot.com/2010/08/paper-towel-roll-flowerstuturial.html for the camellia

So what are you waiting for? Get those art materials out and start decorating!

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Staple Free Stapler at Think Geek

I was scouring the net for green office products to buy for myself when I saw this stapler in ThinkGeek! The moment I saw it, my geek-meter went on overload and my green idea light bulb exploded! Oh yeah! This is wicked!!!

Why is the Staple-Free Stapler Earth-Friendly

The staple-free stapler, doesn't need staples to bind paper together, which helps us reduce our consumption of staple wires which are very dangerous pollutants. (Imagine animals ingesting this, imagine you ingesting this). Not to mention reducing the accidents relating to staple wires. Blood, gore, and a heap of papery mess.

How the Staple-Free Stapler Works

It works by cutting flaps from the paper, folding the paper flaps the opposite direction, and then inserting the flaps in a slit it created. It uses the actual paper it's supposed to bind together to bind it together. Neat-o! There are some products on the Internet that offer customization of the stapler to add a logo on the last flap. Cool-io!

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Available Designs and Colors

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Think Before You Print Email Signatures

UPDATE 11.8.2011 : Fixed he broken link for the Mozilla Thunderbird Tutorial, added borders for the tutorial list and fixed a few grammatical errors in the post, added a link to the Badges and Signatures page

There's no doubt that we use a lot of paper in the office. Whether it be for printing memos, documentations, notices, and even *gasp* emails.

It's one thing to be conscious about printing and saving paper, it's another to encourage others to do so too. At times though we may come on as a nag if we keep on badgering colleagues to think before they print.

So instead of verbally reminding them, we could add the nifty pictures (found below) to our email signatures to make our email recipients "think before they print". The images are in a .png format with transparent backgrounds. There are versions with white-colored backgrounds on the Badges and Signatures page.

These pictures will make them stop and think before hitting the print button.




For instructions on how to add any of the images to your email signatures click on any of the links below:

For:	Link
Mozilla Thunderbird	http://email.about.com/od/mozillathunderbirdtips/qt/et_tb_sig_image.htm
Outlook	http://email.about.com/od/outlooktips/qt/Insert_a_Graphic_Animation_in_Your_Outlook_Email_Signature.htm

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How To Think Green

In order to live a green life, you need to change how you think. We have grown accustomed to having new stuff and making life easier. We have learned that there are shortcuts that we can take to speed anything that we want to do, and this demand for shortcuts have endangered our plant, our lives.

The "New is Better" Mindset

I must say, the marketing campaigns of the 70s have successfully transformed our minds into thinking newer things means better things. Quantity over quality. A lot of people would rather buy 10 of the same cheap shoes than buy one quality shoe that would last year. "At least I have shoes that are 10 times new".

Imagine how much energy is spent in making just one shoe? Most shoes use virgin materials, meaning materials that are made out of the earth's resources. Imagine how many trees need to be cut and animals slaughtered to procure raw materials; imagine how much smoke was released in the atmosphere to turn the raw materials to virgin, workable materials. Imagine how much gas was used to ship raw materials, virgin materials and finished products from material warehouses to manufacturing warehouses. How much CO2 was emitted by airplanes and trucks for shipping? How much oil seeped in the oceans.

To think green we should have the:

Quality over Quantity Mindset

To live green, we need to change our mindset to quality over quantity. Buying lesser shoes would mean a lower demand for shoe manufacturing. Maybe you're thinking that you're just one person, and purchasing less wouldn't move the demand for shoes? Well, that's where you're blinded. Sure one person wouldn't make much of a difference, but if you count how much shoes you buy in a lifetime, you'll believe me in saying that it's enough to make an impact in the demand for sure. Now imagine that if 100 people all over the world changed their mindset, that would make a drastic impact in the demand.

"Good For the Planet, Bad for Me" Way of Thinking

I am surprised to find that a lot of people would rather put first their own comforts versus the sustainability of the world. Take straws for instance, people would rather use a drinking straw cause ice-cold beverages can damage teeth and their roots (or so they say), or that the drinking glasses weren't cleaned properly and they might get diseases from drinking on the rim (this excuse really had me wondering if the person who said it really understood what he's saying).

I'm still waiting for my front teeth to fall off, or something else, for not using straws. So far, I haven't had toothaches my teeth aren't that stained. And as for dirty drinking glasses, whatever's in the rim of that glass might as well be in the glass, since when the glasses are washed, they put everything in a tub of water, so the germs are pretty much all over.

 To think green we should have the:

"Right for the Environment, Right for Everyone" Way of Thinking

It's the age old saying, "Good doesn't mean it's right". It's time we stop fumbling with good and bad, and start working with right and wrong. Using a straw may be good for you but, it's not right for you simply because it's wrong for the environment. Whatever the earth is suffering now, we will suffer it back, twice- or maybe thrice-fold.

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Recycled, Personalized, Adjusting Calendar

I woke up at the wrong side of the bed today and I feel tired, sleepy and worse, uninspired. I kept myself busy with work while thinking about what to blog about today. I was so uninspired that it was making me sad. I kept glancing at my calendar, waiting for Thursday to come and get that well deserved vacation. Then it hit me, the calendar I have at my cube! That's it!

My calendar was made from mostly recycled paper. Recycled bond papers and craft papers. It's also magnetic.

The concept behind my calendar is, instead of having a calendar that uses  lot of pages of paper, I just have a calendar where I move the numbers around every month.

The idea started back in my first job. They gave me a small space in the cork board and I decided that I want a calendar in that small space where I can post my schedule for the month. I bought push pins that can be written on for the numbers.

I don't have step by step pictures for creating the calendar, but I can just show you pieces of my calendar.

My current calendar is magnetic, because our office cubes are magnetic. The magnets I used are craft magnets which are pliable and can be cut by regular scissors. I think you can buy some at craft stores, but for me, I bought it in Daiso Japanese store here in Ortigas, Philippines.

Step 1 - Create the calendar box borders

I made mine by  cutting boxes from an orange construction paper. You need 7 boxes across and 5 boxes down. Measurement of mine is:
Entire calendar boxes: 280 cm wide, 170.5 cm long
Size of one box (measurements are the inside of the box, not the border): 30.2 cm wide, 20.6 cm long

Step 2 - Glue the calendar box in a sheet of colored/decorative paper

I used an old orange parchment paper for mine. (Take note that mine already has a decorative paper at the back cause I already made it before). This step is not required if you're using push pins/cork board.

Step 3 - Create the months of the year for your calendar using old bond papers

I didn't create any for mine cause I thought it was a waste of paper.

Step 4 - Write down the days of the week on old bond papers. Decorate and cut out

Step 5 - Cut a magnetic strip and attach at the back of the day of the week you created, using double sided tape

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Step 5 - Just stick it to your calendar using glue or double-sided tape

Step 6 -  Write down the dates of the month on old bond papers or used cardstock.

Decorate and cut out. I chose cats a design for mine

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Step 6 - Write the dates of the months on the space provided on the pushpin heads. Decorate if you want.

Step 7 - Cut a small magnetic strip, small enough to fit in the date you created and attach it at the back of it, using double sided tape (skip if using push pins)

Step 8 - Assemble your calendar

 

Step 9 - Using old bond papers cut out small squares (smaller than the size of the calendar box). These will serve as the event tags in your calendar. Put it in a small box.

So my finished calendar looks like this

You can make this calendar for office for school, or even at home! It's a great way to be organized!

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Green Office Tips For an Employee

There are a lot of tips on the Internet about how to keep your office greener, but most of the tips out there need you to be in a strategic or decision-making position.

How do you set the printer on both pages if you're not the IT person who manages the printers?
How can you choose green office materials and furniture if you're not in charge of buying these items?

Fret not. Here are tips on how you can be a

Green Employee

Green Computer Use

The computer is the most used office tool, unfortunately they're power hoggers themselves. So we have to take steps on how to minimize the power consumption of your computer

1. Set your screen to time-out after being idle. Instead of having a screen saver, just turn-off the display. The monitor will use less energy since the display is off.
2. Use battery power if you're issued a laptop. Aside from saving your battery from being incapacitated early, you're also saving by not drawing power from the outlets. Just make sure that the charging unit is also unplugged as well.
3. Use black backgrounds since black backgrounds just turn off the pixel on the screen. As a trivia, the hex value of black is #000000. In IT and electronics, 0 means off.
4. If you're not dealing with time-critical work, then set power options to "power saver" mode.
5. Don't keep your monitor too bright. If you're comfortable in working with a little dim monitor, then it's better, since less energy is spent to light up the pixels

Green Paper Use

1. Don't print everything. Before printing, think. "What will I do with this paper after I print it?". If you'll just look at it and read it once, then don't print it anymore. You're just wasting ink and paper. You can just view it on your computer
2. Instead of printing memos and other documents that needs to be read by other employees, just send an email.
3. Before printing something that you really have to print, read or check the document first and make sure that everything is correct. This is to remove the "wrong print" scenario. A lot of paper is wasted just because employees find an incorrect grammar or missing titles in the documents.

Energy Efficiency

1. Get more work done. Instead of idling in the office, pretending to work, get more work done. Although the office will still open and consume power every workday, getting more work done actually benefits the environment since less energy is wasted on useless things
2. Don't turn on the fan if the AC is on. Although there are times that you feel you need the extra cool breeze, don't. Just sit and relax. Your body will adjust to the temperature of the office and you won't feel hot anymore.
3. Do not overcharge your gadgets. Not only does overcharging incapacitates your battery, it also consumes energy that could have been used for more productive activities

Coffee Breaks

Breaks are an employees "me time". Employees can do what they want with this extra hour or quarter of an hour. Remember these tips to keep your break green.

1. Bring your own mug and/or tumbler. Instead of using the paper, plastic and styro cups (especially the latter) provided in the pantry, bring your own. It is a little tedious to wash your own mug and tumbler but it greatly reduces our carbon footprint by purchasing less cups.
2. Opt to dine-in on fast foods than to take the food out. Dine-in customers get the washable flat- and silverware. Washing the dishes costs less than using paper boxes/bowls, plastic spoon and forks, plastic/paper bags for the take-out food.
3. Bring your own silverware. If ever you need to take out food, refuse the plastic spoon and fork. Just use your own. It's cleaner and earth-friendlier
4. Reuse your teabag. There's nothing wrong with reusing tea bags. It'll save you on tea expenses (since tea isn't usually given for free in the office) I reuse mine thrice on my 500 mg tumbler.

Be Daring. Encourage Others

If you are bold enough to make a suggestion to management, then why not? Tell your boss the benefits of being green. Most companies now are looking for more ways to be green, so why not start it in your office as well? Start small. Start with your team. Look for ways on how your team can minimize your carbon footprint.

1. Use email for memos. 'nuf said
2. Digitize your forms. You do fill out most of the inter-office or inter-department forms on your computer, so why do you need to print it?
3. Use digital signatures. Digital signatures can be anything, whether it be just the email signature, or a confirm button if you're using a software, use digital signatures instead of signing forms that will just be forgotten after they all sign it.
4. Dedicated a hard drive for documentation. Gone are the days when you need to "file" documents. Since you create the documents on the computer, there's no sense of printing it at all. Just dedicate a computer or a hard drive where your team will put all the documentations in.

Remember, there are more ways to be green, all we have to do is to change our attitude of "me-me-me" into "earth-friendly - earth-friendly - earth-friendly"!

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