Green Ideas for your World

Many people are focused on the home front when it comes to becoming more eco-friendly, or “green.” That’s all well and good, and you can apply all of the ideas mentioned below to your home lifestyle, but the often overlooked part of life that needs to change for many is the work environment!

1. First off, you can provide recycling bins for your workers, and yourself, or introduce the idea to the big-wigs. Place them next to all the trash cans, and what people have found is that placing pictures of the recyclable materials on the bins helps promote participation. Some even “seed” the bins by placing the materials okay to recycle inside the bins so others can see what’s okay to discard and follow suit.

2. Another idea is to stop buying disposable cups and invest in some good old fashioned coffee mugs. Most employees drink coffee or tea, even just water can go into those mugs. Have each person be responsible for cleaning the mug they use or dedicate the chore to someone in the office, or even rotate it. A little effort on everyone’s part goes a long way.

3. A great deal of business owners and employees alike are now working from home as the cost of commuting surges. It’s a great way to cut costs related to travel & fuel, leasing and owning property, and maintenance. As technology advances and an increasing number of our daily work tasks can be performed just as or more efficiently online than in the office, telecommuting should be given heavy consideration; even if it’s just a few days per week.

4. Use natural remedies for pest control and for cleaning. The company Seventh Generations makes a great line of eco-friendly products, the latest of which is the toilet cleaner! It’s safe for the septic-tank and non-caustic to humans.

5. Here are a few more helpful hints to make your personal or work environment eco-friendly: If there are ants in your home or office sprinkle a line of pepper, they won’t cross it. If there are ample windows and it’s sunny outside, open the curtains and let the light in and turn off the overhead lights. And on moderate days, open those windows up to save on heating and cooling.

In regards to our current portfolio companies that are in some way focused on the green movement: Legacy Systems Holding (OTCPK: LGYH) has developed and patented a new, breakthrough process that employs “Green Chemistry” to produce an environmentally safe process for photoresist stripping and cleaning of any size silicon wafer. Legacy’s technology demonstrates a significant value proposition for the $7 billion per year silicon wafer cleaning industry in many ways and has already been adopted by the likes of Tyco and Micrel. Here’s a corporate profile on Legacy that we put together a short while back.

These ideas mentioned above can help create a successful green life in and out of work. What other ideas can you implement to help preserve our planet?