So fresh and so green

There's an old saying in the business world that "free" is the most powerful word in marketing.

That's probably still true, though over the last few years you would swear that "Green" is the most powerful marketing buzz word. As more and more people realize their effects on the environment, everyone wants to feel like they're doing their part to reduce their "carbon footprint." Marketers know this and have been playing on people's hopes and fears for the better half of the last decade. Hence, we're constantly inundated with various companies touting all their efforts to be more "green." Many of these are completely bologna, others not so much.

We wish we could do more to help the environment here at Docucopies, but every little bit does help. Some of the steps we've taken to curb waste and reduce our carbon footprint have had some very real effects:

• Recycling toner bottles
  We go through hundreds of these babies every week, and until we moved to our current location in Wisconsin this was not an option. Better recycling capabilities played a part in our decision on where to move the business in 2008, and we've been keeping thousands of pounds of these things out of the local landfill every month since.
  
• Recycled paper stock
  Our regular paper stock is already 25% post-consumer recycled material. Unfortunately many people aren't aware that we also offer 100% post-consumer recycled paper in 28# bond and 80# cover stock. On average, choosing these products adds only a penny per sheet, which is still incredibly cheaper than anything you will get from your local printer or chain copy shop. Please folks, bite the bullet, spend that extra penny, and use our recycled paper!
  
• We recycle
  It's not just toner bottles, folks. We recycle our own prints (internal memos, etc.), our snack and drink packages, paper scraps left over from bindery, boxes, and anything else that can be reprocessed and put to use.
  
• Future plans
  We're always exploring new ways to be more efficient. There has been talk about adding solar panels to our roof to help reduce our use of the electric grid, and the boss has even kicked around the idea of putting up a windmill or two, since we're situated in a particularly blustery corridor. There are other ideas, too, but I guess we should save some for next year's earth day...

Speaking of which... HAPPY EARTH DAY!