I am pleased to share a wonderful blog post from a guest blogger Angela Taylor a blogger and aspiring designer.   While there is a lot of information focusing on green/eco-friendly options for the home, this is a wonderful focused look at what we can do specifically for our home or small office spaces in that regard.  Take a read and implement some of the great ideas!

 

6 Simple Eco-Friendly Elements for a Visually Striking Home Office

Green products for an environmentally-friendly work environment

The home office combines your professional and personal life—so it should, rightly so, be a reflection of you. Unfortunately, the home office is usually an after-thought and designated to a corner in your kitchen or living room. If you’re concerned about the environment, there are green products that you can incorporate into your home office to make it more environmentally friendly and more visually appealing as well. Considering this home office will be where you spend the majority of your day, it would make sense to make it as comfortable, functional and attractive as possible.

Here are our 6 simple Eco-friendly product recommendations for a visually pleasing home office that you can get inspired in:

1. Eco-friendly wall décor: Green wall décor is offered in various patterns and textures—plus it’s better for your health than conventional wallpapers that can contain chemicals. Look into attractive wall décor and coverings like:

• Glass whiteboards—or glass dry erase boards provide a natural and safe surface for brainstorming
• Eco-friendly wallpaper— made from natural renewable bamboo, rice paper, flax, cork, arrowroot and a mish-mash of recycled papers
• Reed, cattail and paper weave murals—make beautiful wall décor with delicate dried leaves and natural grasses twisted together and making unique wall art
• Ceramic and mica photo frames—are constructed from natural sands in the soil and formed into a beautiful variety of colors and sizes

2. Recycled office furniture: You can find some really great eclectic pieces of second hand office furniture at your local thrift shop or Salvation Army. A lot of large companies also throw out their office furniture rather than repairing it during an upgrade so you can salvage some top quality ergonomic office chairs and desks and save it being thrown into a landfill site.

3. Eco materials for your home office: You can find an abundant of environmentally-friendly and recycled materials for your home office, for instance:

• Wheat board – for the walls (and it can double as a posting board) as well as floors
• You can buy 4GB bamboo flash drives as opposed to the plastic variety
• Moleskine notebooks (made of bamboo pulp) are waterproof with washable covers
• Sustainable timber – for your desk and storage units
• Recycled aluminum – again, for office desks, storage units and office chairs
• Recycled glass – ideal for walls and attractive office desk tops
• Recycled upholstery – great for throw pillows, stuffed bean bag chairs and desk chair coverings

4. Harness the power of sustainable energy: Look to natural resources with these really aesthetic pieces of office equipment:

• Solar-powered cell phone chargers
• Water-powered calculators
• Solar LED bottle light bulbs

5. Recycled or refurbished electronics: Akin to finding used office furniture from large corporations, you can often buy refurbished electronics for a fraction of the cost. Many large companies will host a used electronics sale when it is time to upgrade their computers, laptops, fax machines, photocopiers, printers and office telephones. You can feel good rescuing that refurbished laptop from a life in the scrap yard. Keep in mind that your home office electronics give off VOC emissions as well as other chemical vapors that pollute the air in your home. Try these additional energy-savings tips for a greener home office:

• Use a laptop instead of a desktop computer—laptops use less energy
• Unplug the printer, fax machine and computer when your day is over
• Plug multiple electronics into one power bar so that you can turn them all off with one switch
• Leave office equipment on timers so that everything automatically shuts down overnight
• Minimize the number of office electronics you use by purchasing all in one photocopier/printer/scanner/ fax models
• Use online fax and telephone
• And when you are finished with your home office electronics, donate them to local schools, shelters or for reuse where needed

6. Refillable/reusable office supplies: When you look for office supplies—such as pens, pencils, files and ink cartridges for your printer—seek out refillable and reusable varieties. And also:

• Look for recycled plastic products such as pens.
• Buy pens and printer cartridges with non-toxic inks like vegetable- or soy-based ink
• Buy multiple packs of pens, Post-it notes and staples to cut down your packaging waste
• Reuse all of your elastic bands, thumb tacks and paper clips
• Set up a recycling bin so you don’t throw used up items away