How Freelancers Can Save the Environment
Posted July 12, 2010 in How-To, Lifestyle 26 Comments »
Freelancing is potentially one of the most eco-friendly jobs out there.
Most of us work at home, which reduces our contribution to the pollution, fuel use, and other possible effects of traveling to and from an office.
In contrast, office employees not only have to use a car or other means of transportation to get to work and back. They have little control of how their colleagues use office resources. They also have little say about which office equipment, building materials or waste management methods are used in their work places.
On the other hand, freelancers have more control and decision-making power over our work environment. In this post, I’ll show you some actions you can take to make a difference.
5 Ways Freelancers Can Help the Environment
There are many ways freelancers can help save the environment. Here are five:
- Set Up a Green Home Office. It’s your office; you get to design it any way you want. Why not make eco-friendly choices while you’re at it? You can be more environment-conscious in your choice of furniture, office equipment, and other things that involve your office. Click here to read our 10 tips for a green home office.
- Green Your Transportation. If you prefer to work at the nearest Starbucks, a rented office, or any other place outside your home, consider green transportation alternatives. Since it’s summer, it’s nice to bike around. Walk if your destination is near enough. Otherwise, take the public transport, or arrange to carpool with friends. In the market for a new car? Check out one of the hybrid models that require less fuel. At the very least, buy the most fuel-efficient car you can afford.
- Use Less Electricity. Be conscious about how much electricity you use, not only in your home office, but throughout your house. Turn off lights and electronics when not in use. Buy energy star-compliant appliances, and consider the latest solar-powered desk lamps, cell phone chargers, and other gadgets you use all the time. Be smart about cooling or heating your home. For example, use window blinds to keep the sun (and heat) out in the summer. You can find blinds and shades made especially to keep heat out while letting light in. Cover up drafty doors and windows to keep the cold out and the heat in during the winter. Here’s a trick to humidify the air without electricity in the winter months: hang wet towels or clothes inside the room, preferably near a window. As the water evaporates, it will moisturize the air.
- Minimize Your Use of Paper. Think twice before printing any document: do you really need it in print, or could you use it just as easily on the computer? Use less paper by switching to computer applications that let you manage your schedule, create and track to-do lists, and collaborate with others. If you must print something, use paper made from recycled materials. Reuse paper by printing on the blank side, or using them as scratch pads for anything from your to-do lists to doodles and phone messages. Speaking of papers, dispose of them properly. Organize your recyclable trash to make sure they do get recycled instead of being dumped with non-biodegradable waste. Start a backyard compost, so you can turn paper and other organic waste into fertilizer for your garden. If you’re adventurous, a vermicompost is a great way to recycle paper as well as fruit and vegetable waste.
- Buy Sparingly. The very act of buying anything new means more packaging to throw away, and more stuff to keep clean, take care of it, and store. By keeping your stuff acquisition to the bare minimum, you also produce less waste overall. Every time you do buy a new item, think through its “life span.” How was it made? What raw materials were used? What chemicals were dumped into the environment? While you’re using it, what other resources will it require (such as electricity, fuel, etc)? When you have to throw it away, will it biodegrade easily and quickly, or will it clog up the landfill indefinitely? Alternatively, learn to make more things yourself. If you can sew, for example, you can make clothes, soft furnishings and toys from repurposed materials. It takes time, effort and creativity to squeeze the most from everything we own. However, it is well worth it.
The minimalist life is more earth-friendly than a consumeristic life. You save more money as well.
Going Green All the Way
The five environment-friendly tips listed above are only some of the ways freelancers can be kinder to the Earth.
If you want to green your entire lifestyle, you have eco-friendly choices in everything: the food you eat, the materials you build your house with, your decorating choices, the clothes and shoes you wear, the toiletries you use to clean yourself, how you entertain, the vacations you take….
It isn’t that only freelancers have these choices to make; every human being does.
However, since freelancers have more control of our work environment and lifestyle, it behooves us to make eco-friendly choices whenever we can.
What Are Your Green Tips?
I’m sure I have missed some great ideas freelancers can be more eco-friendly. Can you think of other ways freelancers can helps save the environment? Do share by posting a comment below.
Image by Faster Panda Kill Kill
About the author: Lexi Rodrigo is the creator of The Savvy Freelancer, a blog that's all about achieving creative and financial freedom through freelancing. Check out Lexi's free guide, 31 Days to Start Your Freelancing Business (or Make Yours A Better One).
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26 Comments
Freelance FactFile
July 12th, 2010 at 8:53 amYes, I make a conscious effort to do all those things. It’s a matter of getting into a habit of turning off lights and not leaving appliances on standby etc. I use public transport nearly all the time and I walk a lot, too.
Our local council makes it easy for us to recycle as there are recycle bins in all our dustbin areas in my complex of flats. And we don’t have to sort it into glass, paper and tins either. They do all that for us.
Also, there’s a new scheme in London starting very soon where you can hire bikes by the hour – to encourage more people onto cycles and out of their cars.
Nastya
July 12th, 2010 at 9:20 amInformative and useful article, thanks to author!
Jordan Walker
July 12th, 2010 at 9:50 amYou can start as simple as rechargeable batteries for your wireless mouse.
Scott Miller
July 12th, 2010 at 10:45 amGreat post, Lexi! Hat’s off to you for spreading the good word about how to combine work with doing good things for the planet. I am 100% with you on this, putting “my money where my mouth is” as our company focuses on helping to save the honey bees.
searchlackey
July 12th, 2010 at 11:29 amWe all should strive to go green whenever possible.
Lexi Rodrigo
July 12th, 2010 at 11:30 amThanks for the comments, everyone! Please keep sharing your eco-friendly freelancing tips.
Tyler Dawson
July 12th, 2010 at 12:44 pmGreat tips! Another quick one is recycling ink containers. It’s better for the environment and sometimes you can get discounts or coupons for them at stores (staples, for one).
gerry suchy
July 12th, 2010 at 12:55 pmGreat article Lexi and a reminder to us all that it all starts with what we do as individuals in our day to day work.
Here’s a short list for what I do.
Use the subway whenever possible for any and all trips from the house.
Ride my scooter when the train doesn’t go where I need to go.
Only use commercial printers that are eco friendly and use soy based inks.
I do not work for clients who produce goods or services that are blatantly anti environment. If you show up for a meeting driving a tricked out 10 cylinder, carbon belching pick up truck, we’ll have some preliminary issues to work through ;)
As much as humanly possible I use a PDF work flow. Anything that needs to be printed for a proof is done on recycled paper.
My entire home is converted to CFL lighting.
I sort and recycle trash and only use trash collectors who do the same.
Bret Juliano
July 12th, 2010 at 1:49 pmI agree with all of these tips but, within the last point, Buy Sparingly, “The very act of buying anything new means more packaging to throw away, and more stuff to keep clean, take care of it, and store. By keeping your stuff acquisition to the bare minimum, you also produce less waste overall. Every time you do buy a new item, think through its “life span.” How was it made? What raw materials were used? What chemicals were dumped into the environment? ” Someone, somewhere will buy the products whether or not you buy them. The impact on the environment has already been made long before the item hit the store shelf. But I also know that’s not your point.
Jae Xavier
July 12th, 2010 at 2:38 pmMinimalist design = minimalist lifestyle.
Consolidate, your belongings
Conserve, resources
Control, yourself
Stephanie
July 12th, 2010 at 7:28 pmTurn off the computer, turn off the lights, turn off the air conditioning unit, and use Evernote for note-taking. If I need to go anywhere, I either use the public train or the tricycles. Taxis are only for places really far from where I live.
These are my ways of being an eco-friendly freelancer. :)
Tony Cosentino
July 13th, 2010 at 2:15 amGreat article Lexi,
I think freelancers are a great group to move to an eco friendly business as we are far more agile than Big Businesses who need to have a board meeting to use eco friendly toilet paper.
My plan is have a carbon neutral business. Areas to do that I see are:
Using a bicycle, bus, hybrid car for meetings, going paperless, getting solar panels fitted, electronic business cards.
It’s a great business angle too for people wanting to do business with eco friendly freelancers!
kind regards
Tony
Sponsi
July 13th, 2010 at 3:11 amI generally refuse to go with this BS about saving environment. The same with this idiotic CO2 issue (countries have to pay for it BUAH) and saving energy, water, etc. Wankers in big corporations, governments, don’t give a damn about everything they say. Besides, I am actually PRO global warming. We will pay less for the central heating, right? To sum it up, there are more important things in everyone’s life plus changes have to be made at international level and I don’t mean the United Socialist Republic of Europe.
Issa
July 13th, 2010 at 7:50 amGreat tips you’ve got here. Although, there is a misconception that going paperless is entirely green. In fact, we may you may just consume more energy with the use of electronic alternatives. What’s the solution then? Other than using those gadgets and gizmos that are energy-star compliant, you can put your laptop on a power-saver mode – which is very useful for freelancers on the go ( such as myself ).
Shawn
July 14th, 2010 at 8:59 amReduce reuse recycle, back in school we were taught that and now more then ever it’s important, During the summer I only use my car on the weekends and bike into work,
Helps keep me fit too!
las vegas seo
July 15th, 2010 at 3:27 amNice article, Just passed this on to a friend who read up on this and she took me to a movie after I gave her this site. So, Thanks!!
Bakari
July 16th, 2010 at 5:36 pmGreat tips. Over the last two years I have reduced by almost 95% the number of documents I print out. It’s so easy to read stuff on my iPhone and iPad, and in turn almost everything I want to annotate into a PDF. iAnnotate for the iPad is by far the best solution for reading and annotating PDFs. I do the same thing on my computer. At some point, the newspaper and magazine industry will have converge to presenting nearly all its productions via the e-readers. It simply doesn’t make sense for most of us to be reading paper publications anymore when they can be easily read through software and hardware e-readers.
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