No, I don’t want to know your shoe size - I mean the footprint that you are leaving on our planet.

I found out yesterday that I was one of the winners in a contest sponsored by greenlight! Prince Edward Island. All I did was put my business card in a draw at a trade show a couple of weeks ago, and I won 20 compact florescent light bulbs for my office. We already use energy efficient bulbs, so now we won’t have to purchase any for quite awhile.

I started thinking this morning of what else I can be doing to reduce my environmental footprint. I always shop with sturdy reusable bags instead of the flimsy plastic ones. Here on PEI we have a mandatory recycling and composting program, so we’re forced to do our part for the environment each day. I use energy efficient bulbs. I try to shop locally whenever possible. I wash and reuse zip lock bags (unless they had something yucky in them like raw meat) - Oprah claims she does this too. I try to use washable rags instead of paper towels when I’m doing my cleaning. That actually reminds me that I’ve been considering making reusable dinner napkins instead of using paper ones.

We all know what we can be doing to be nicer to our environment - but sometimes we don’t because of the bit of extra effort required.

Here are some easy ideas that you can implement in your own business if you haven’t already - to help out the environment:

• Use real coffee mugs and reusable water bottles to reduce the use of throwaway materials.
• Recycle your ink cartridges.
• Instead of throwing away paper, cut it up, staple the sheets together and you have free note pads.
• Car pool.
• Purchase your supplies locally.
• Use reusable containers for lunches instead of plastic bags.
• Switch to energy efficient bulbs.

What are you doing to reduce the footprint you leave behind on our beloved Earth?

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