Over the last three years, the importance of the environment for the American public has moved from a fringe issue to among the top 5 issues that matter most, often competing with homeland security and health care as a key concern.
Despite a growing awareness of the need to protect the environment, as demonstrated by the increasing levels of adoption in recycling of common goods such as paper, bottles and cans, many Americans feel unsure on what practical steps they can take to make environmentalism a feasible part of their daily lives.
One easy step to take is for every American to take a closer look at where waste occurs. Home and business printing have long been a major culprit in the massive growth in paper consumption during the information age. With the birth of the digital era, many futurists predicted the demise of paper as tool for communication. The opposite has happened. According to reduce.org, a non profit organization that monitors waste and offers suggestions to combat it, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year, enough "to build a 12-foot high wall stretching from New York to San Francisco."
Print Smarter
Software such as ecoPrint (www.ecoprintsaver.com) allows users to save valuable ink and toner, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by cutting paper waste in half. Furthermore, users can instantly observe their ecological footprint with the program’s unique conservation calculator telling you what your eco-impact will be with your printing choices. Specifically, the ink saver tool allows users to reduce the consumption of ink by up to 50% without compromising legibility and the paper saving feature allows users to print multiple pages on one sheet and to move, delete or rearrange pages. Not only can users have a positive impact on the environment, they can save money at the same time.
Bag it Yourself
Americans can also embrace the "I’m bagging it approach." When shopping, by bringing their own plastic bags (or better yet their own canvas bags), consumers can make a real and positive impact by limiting emissions to produce new packaging and to reduce the waste in landfills due to excessive and unnecessary packaging.
Community First
Perhaps one of the most effective steps to instill the adoption of environmentally sustainable habits within America is to take a community approach that enhances these habits through the participation of community members. Since starting an environmental initiative from scratch may prove to be daunting and time consuming, an easier way would be for Americans to enlist the community groups to which they already belong (such as their sports teams, social clubs, their churches and synagogues) to adopt simple starter steps (recycling, improving printing habits, reducing packaging, car pooling, buying green) that allows the community group (and the community as a whole) to become more environmentally conscious, one easy step at a time.
By implementing these 3 easy eco-friendly steps in addition to participating in their existing recycling efforts, Americans can take pride in knowing that they have contributed their part to saving and protecting the environment, without breaking a sweat.