Not looking to buy a new computer? Check out these 5 tips to eco-fy your current PC:

1.       Set up sleep mode.

2.       Decrease your Microsoft Word margins.

3.       Clean your keyboard without chemicals.

4.       Recycle printer cartridges.

5.       Set up draft mode on your printer.

-Toshio...off to shut down...

Today's tip is the second in a series of monthly recycling tips intended to help us all figure out the nitty-gritty details of certain types of recycling and to answer some common questions.

Compared to a lot of materials, things made of metal tend to have a lot more potential for creative reuse. I love that more and more nonprofs take used vehicle donations - the cars are sold at auction to licensed car dealers or recyclers, and the majority of the sale price goes into the nonprof's bank account. Recently, I donated my old, giant, metal Power Mac to my favorite local theater company - I got more space in my house and a $500 tax deduction, the theater got a badly needed boost to its sound system. And while I normally return my hangers to the dry cleaner, I ended up bringing a few to my ballet school's dressing room so that my fellow dancers wouldn't have to pile their coats on the floor. I also just turned my beautiful old red tea kettle (which I replaced with an electric one) into a pot for a homeless plant.

Anything's better than sending things to a landfill, but recycling factories obviously use up a lot of energy and recycling pickup trucks obviously consume a lot of fuel.

All redistribution takes is a bit of thoughtfulness and creativity.

-Jenifer Morgan...off to scratch my head over what to do with that sardine can...

Want a green job?  There's always another option... start your own business.

I definitely don't recommend it for the faint of heart.  In fact, unless you are 100% devoted to the idea, and believe with all your heart that it will work, I say run away.

But if you DO have that itch that just needs to be scratched...

It's a great, green world these days, people.  If you have a good idea - take a swing. The time has never been more ripe.

-Heather... off to heat up my buckwheat pillow to warm my toes in bed...

Thank God pencils haven't contained actual lead for a few hundred years now. Otherwise, Biter intern Hanah might not have lasted this long. A run-in with a conventional, wooden pencil caused her (not to mention the pencil) a whole lotta hurt, and she's got the war wounds to prove it.

I'm including these highly disturbing images with the hope that they'll keep you from making the same mistake (and to give you another reason to switch to mechanical pencils). Be safe out there.

-Toshio...off to warn the others...

In the strange litany of the many ways in which I contradict myself constantly, today's tip takes the cake.  Inexplicably, I have an almost-miserly feeling about printers and printing.  When Jen and I were raising money for Ideal Bite, and we had to print out fancy copies of charts and biz plans to give to people in powerful positions, I would have printed each copy in gray draft mode, if I'd been allowed to.  I stealthily set friends' and family members' printers to default draft mode whenever I borrow their machines, and often wonder how long it takes for them to realize it.  We all have our "things, and, well, print-efficiency is one of mine.

It's odd to me that the whole printing thing can affect me like a knife in the ribs, while I can sit through an occasional steak dinner without thinking too much about the ramifications of eating grain-fed red meat.  I just moved into a new place, and all my lightbulbs aren't yet CFLs, but show me a piece of paper that has a clean back side (perfectly good for creating grocery lists or printing boarding passes) thrown into a recycle bin, and I react much as if I had found a thousand thermometers and 47 batteries in a bucket full of parabens sealed in plastic bags and tossed into a landfill.  Give me a buggy printer spitting out multiple copies of the same page, and it incites a "small children are being murdered!!!" panic in me, and I can't scramble to the print feature or the power cord fast enough.  (And it really annoys me that the printer doesn't actually STOP when you hit "cancel," taking its time shutting down, like a scalding shower cooling off after you scream and flip it to cold.)

Clearly, I need to switch out those bulbs to CFLs, and thankfully, I AM really lessening the frequency with which I eat meat.

In the meantime, just don't go tossing out any single-sided printing in front of me if you know what is good for you.

-Heather... off to enjoy a last day of meetings in LA...

So - having my own house is dreamy, with the exception of the fact that I'm not a terribly "handy" person.  However, everyone tells me that installing a programmable thermostat is easy, so I just ordered the Clairion one from today's tip.

I'll report back as to how easy-to-install it really is.  My last place had a timer like this one (4 settings a day, different settings for weekday and weekend), and I loved it, so I'm looking forward to getting this one in place.

-Heather... off to read up on how to change the water filter in the sink...

...all of us here in the San Francisco office are going to do our part in the little ways we can.  We're killing lights, steering clear of the bottled water, and turning off our computers.  But my personal favorite nod to greening our office space (since we can't afford to build our own, lovely, LEED-certified building like the lucky people at Hearst...)?

We have all taken an oath that we will only get company drinks within walking distance of our new offices so that we save on fuel costs in transporting us to our drinks.  Fortunately, there are plenty of places to booze in our vicinity.

Aw come on... every little bit/bite, no?  (OK, fine.  We're doing a lot more than that.  However, this is my personal favorite.)

;) - Heather... off to find out our exact move-in date to our new offices...

Do you remember when the internet first took off and not long after everyone was saying, "Soon we will have paperless offices!" In fact, the opposite happened.

I think it did for two reasons:

1) we are sending a TON more information around, so much information that people can't keep up with all the emails so they need to print them off for weekend or subway reading.

2) we don't trust e-data yet...we might lose it to cyberspace or something so we hit "print."

So are we paperless at Ideal Bite?  Absolutely not.  However, here's what we are able to do:

• Reuse paper by sending it back through on the other side when it is not sensitive info.
• Use the edit mode in Word like nobody's business. As just one example, our tips go through about 5 rounds of edits...imagine if we printed each of our 260+ tips a year at least 5 times. 
• Ask that businesses send any info they want to get to us in e-form, so: "Instead of a brochure, just point us to your e-brochure," etc.
• And in the Bozeman office, we lug our paper that's been used on both sides up to the recycling center about once a month. In SF I think they have curb-side...
• We also use recycled paper for our printers and corporate materials. If anyone is interested in business printing services that are green and affordable, go to http://www.printingforless.com, and use the code for $25 off your first order: RP1SZY4SR.

-Jen... off to edit a week's worth of tips in Edit Mode...considering I just got back from a killer cattle drive I won't complain so much working a bit today.

You know, at the Bite we try to give you a fresh, sometimes funny perspective and dialog into what we call "light green living" (ie: keep it real, treehuggers - no one is perfect.)

And there are certainly enough enviro non profs that will give you sample letters to Senators and such, but the team really felt that this issue was such a no brainer, that stodgy big utility companies really needed a wakeup call, and maybe a letter coming from you - not generated by an automated email system, will start to get the message heard.

Here's to a powerful, green, prosperous, balanced and alt-energy filled 2007! - Jen

SAMPLE LETTER:

To Whom It May Concern,

I recently learned about green power through an Ideal Bite Daily Tip. Some energy providers offer options such as solar and wind power to their subscribers. My question to you is, do you have plans to make these kinds of options available locally?

You're probably aware that conventional power plants (such as coal) are responsible for more air pollution than any other source in the US. An EPA study released in 2004 concluded that 22,000 deaths could be prevented each year if more utilities took advantage of available new technologies in place of coal.

From a financial standpoint, it seems like it would make sense for utility companies as well - just consider that some of the nation's largest companies (like FedEx Kinko's, HSBC Bank and Kohl's) are already purchasing green power. More businesses (and residential customers like me) are sure to follow.

Please let me know if plans are in the works!

Eagerly awaiting your response,

[Your John Hancock]

The last time my cell phone and I were apart was...never. Close friends know that I even have a name for my cell phone, which I won't mention on this blog. So the idea that every time I drunk dial my BFFs to let them know that I care; every time that I text a blind date that I'll BE 10 MIN LATE. TRAFFIC. SORRY!; every time that I dial a wrong number and some crazy person who really wants to chat picks up - I could actually be helping to (albeit in a tiny, tiny way) save endangered species habitat or help build a village somewhere, it gives me something of a high. Unfortunately, it also makes me think once instead of twice about whiling away overage minutes talking to random strangers I meet while guest-bartending.

Regardless, Working Assets is a good thing. And the fact that there's no premium, price-wise, makes it a great thing. Giving back while doing exactly what I'd be doing anyways? Genius.

-Toshio, off to see about kicking that drunk dialing habit...

The following was posted by Jill Finlayson, Director of Marketing for GreenDimes

Like you, I am busy. Between job, home, cars, parents, spouse, kids, kids' homework, piano, sports, and so forth, there is not a lot of time for thinking about the environment. When in college, like many students, I had the time and opportunity to help raise issues and awareness. While advocating divestment from South Africa to help bring an end to apartheid, we built a symbolic shanty town in front of Sproul Hall, but that is not something I can squeeze into my schedule now.

Does lack of time mean lack of interest? Not in the least, that’s why we created GreenDimes. We know, given a choice right in front of them, people will opt for doing things in a way that will help the planet. We also wanted to make that easier and then show off how much all those little decisions you make really do add up to great improvements when you put them all together.

Besides, it turns out there are problems that we can solve for ourselves that coincidentally help the planet. That’s why we are so serious about figuring out this junk mail problem. It is bad for the earth and bad for my counter space. So less junk mail solves two problems.

So Biters, the question to you is what other easy little things can people do (or not do), that cumulatively will have a big impact?

To get you started, we have thought about reusable bags for shopping (keeping just one in your car and bringing home one less bag helps – you don’t have to use only reusable bags every time) and reusable coffee cups – great idea but I admit to being a big culprit here.  I find myself getting a paper Starbucks cup several times a week.  Washing a cup seems onerous, but I know that’s just plain wrong.  So help me and other Biters and GreenDimers put a little bit of spare change to good use…

Lets chat! Marching together we can make a big difference! 

What's up, Biters? I asked everyone on the team what their favorite green office tips were and here's what they said:

BOZEMAN

Jen: "Put plants everywhere you can to filter the air. We have 8 in the Bozeman office; most were started using cuttings from the offices next door."

Brett: "I've always got my laptop with me, so paper Post-It notes are a waste when I've got Digital Post-Its." Check out http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/digital/digital_notes.html for the full scoop.

The Bite's newest team member, Krista: "I make sure all the computers in the Boz office are turned off at night, instead of leaving them in sleep mode. It increases the lifespan of the computer and the fan doesn't suck in dust all night while it's cooling the machine. In the morning, I've got a few minutes to get the coffee brewin' while I'm waiting for the computers to boot up."

SAN FRANCISCO

Heather: “I use the blank side of one-sided snail mail to print out plane itineraries, boarding passes and sudoku puzzles when I travel on business.”

Sara: "I'm looking into FLOR carpet tiles for our office here. And no, the carpeting will not be green in color. I think it'd be hard to maintain credibility when your office looks like an Astro-turf field. Oh, and by the way, Toshio, we're getting new Peace Lilies and Philodendrons to filter the air in the office, and you're NOT allowed to water them." Good call, Sara - I'd probably drown them knowing my luck with plants...

And my own fave green office tip? I don't care how little energy your CFLs use, opening the blinds and letting the natural light in is always gonna be my preferred method for office lighting.

What's your fave green office tip?

-Toshio, off to look into Tofurkey options for Thanksgiving...

I find the title a bit ironic because after an entire day at the computer I definitely am low energy.  And since the laptop I use is high energy and I use it to warm my lap when the office is a bit nippy, let's talk about ways to KEEP OUR PERSONAL energy up when at the office.

Okay. Ideas? My starter list includes:

1. Coffee
2. Chocolate
3. Repeat both of the both, at the same time.

To be certain, I need to get up and do a little jig every once in a while to not get stuck, both energetically and with a big ol' butt.   

What about those yoga posses you can do?  Heather? Do you still read my blogs, sister-biter-o'-honey?

Just back from a little research- now I am definitely inspired; check it:

Human bodies are made to move. That's why working "mini" activity breaks into your day can really make a difference in how you feel and even how well you perform your job. Even the busiest person can do it. Just five minutes of movement every hour or two can boost your energy and improve your attitude. You'll find that getting your blood pumping and oxygen circulating will help you concentrate better and be more productive, calm, and efficient.

Okay bodacious biters.. I just checked out about 30 sites and this one is the one I am going to book mark... you can do these sitting at your chair.. and the seem to work on the stress aspect as well... Plus I like the little moving stick people. 

http://pages.britishlibrary.net/blwww3/deskexercises/

Be sure to keep me posted (like a post-it note) on how it goes!

Off to see about ordering one of those balance balls to sit on, to really get some ergo-going on. - Jen

So I just had my old computer crap out, and Brett de Woody, our tech dude, is going to see if he can recycle it at Toshiba since I bought my new computer from them, and they have a buy-back deal where we can get $200 for my old laptop even though it is a Compaq - which is a great deal because it is going to take $500 to fix.

I had planned to have tried to return it and tell you all about the process by now, but Heather and I have traveling and Brett is trying to launch a new tip design by the time the Martha show airs (Oct 2) so alas, I will have to fill you in a bit later.  If you are curious, shoot me an email at jen@idealbite.com and I will make sure to send you each emails about the experience. (Okay, who are we kidding, the emails might come from an intern, but alas, that is just so every now and again I can actually get the ferg away from my computer.  Nevertheless, LYL.  - That's "love ya lots" in 8th grader language, which I dig.)

Off to dream of all the toxins we are saving by not sending my computer to the landfill and what we will do with the $200.  Hmm... I know... meet us at Plonk, Bozeman Biters!  - Jen

So if yesterday I raved about how much I love back to school time, today, I need to rave about how much I love this tip.  It's just one of those "of COURSE" ideas that makes so much sense.  (And we bumped other tips out of rotation simply because we wanted to tell the story).

I love that Barbara Maynard not only got her stores to rethink their policies, but that she wrote in and shared her story so that we could convince you all to do the same. 

So come blog with us, Barbara - and the rest of you, share some kudos to her for making a small difference that could just add up to a big one!

-Heather... waiting for Jen at the Boise airport...

The following was written by April, an MBA candidate at the GreenMBA Program (class of December 2006)

There is an article in this month’s Plenty magazine, not about global warming, but about global worrying, the “eco-anxiety” brought on by the overwhelming task of undoing the damage we’ve done to the environment (http://www.plentymag.com/article/11feature). When you are the only person on your block who fills their recycling bin to the brim, you may start to think, “Am I it? Does all this fall on my shoulders? Doesn’t anyone care what’s going on besides Marvin Gaye and me?!”

I’m here to tell you that yes, there are other people who care what’s going on.

John Stayton, one of the founders of the GreenMBA Program, holds a Spring semester event called “Two Fish Café” – an open mike night to re-charge our batteries and reconnect with alumni. At our Cohort’s first Two Fish, one performer was a soft-spoken young farmer who’d joined the program with the intent of developing his farm into a retreat center. He’d lost a close friend recently, he said, and wanted to sing a song for him. In a shaky voice, he began Paul Simon’s “The Boxer.” By the time he was halfway through the song, the entire room was singing along. When he finished, there wasn’t a dry eye (or an empty arm) in the house. It was in that moment, group-hugging a fellow student, that I realized I had become a part of a community I would always feel safe in, would always have a friend in.

Some people say that at the end of Simon’s song, the boy, like the boxer, is hurt, but not beaten. In the road ahead of us, we will have struggles, and disappointments, and hurts too numerous to count, but we will always, always have each other.

And that, my friends, is the only way we can evolve and survive.

For more information about the GreenMBA Program, check them out at: www.greenmba.com.

To join in the discussion or fire questions to Green MBA, April or Ideal Bite, feel free to comment.

I used Red Jellyfish long distance service (back when they had it - I think they just do internet now) and I have to tell you, it was the only bill I did not mind paying.  It showed right on the statement how much of the bill went to saving X acres of rainforest.  It made me want to jump right back on the phone and call all those people that I love and hadn't told in a long while.  So I did, and of course gabbed about this eco-phone service while I was chatting up my loved ones.  The effect:  my life was dramatically enhanced, as was others, other people signed up to save rainforests, and this is what I call the virtual circle of gabbing goodness.  Pay it forward, baby!

In many ways, I think my answer to the question is yes. I am hypercommunicative. I am easily bored. I like to feel connected and far-flung all at the same time. Thus, the internet and cell phones and the convenience of things like online banking all appeal to me.

But every so often, I find myself yearning a bit for an earlier lifestyle. Something about our wired world (which has made so much possible, don't get me wrong) gives us all this rampant permission to be, well, sort of irresponsible. Remember the days when you'd actually have to make a plan to meet someone somewhere, and you HAD to show up or you wouldn't be able to reconnect? Or when you would need to schedule phone conversations for Sunday evenings or wait weeks for letters from your best friend?

Of course, I'm just waxing a little nostalgic. And of course, as co-founder of a daily email and blog, I clearly fall on the side of tech appreciation.

But every so often, I do wish for a cell-free day.

-Heather... off to program my Treo so I can get my email on the go...

Well, for me, I think I want to do all three! It has been quite the week of travel and excitement - from a photoshoot in LA (check out Vanity Fair, May Issue), to finishing off the week riding a mechanical bull in an LA bar with the founder of TreeHugger.com (just ask Graham who stayed on longer).  So anyway, I am in the mood to recharge before going into what looks like it is going to be an exciting spring.

So to settle the debate on which saves more energy, I did some hunting around, and EPA only had more office-based info on saving energy with computer systems. I did find the following debunking of myths interesting... taken from this article on small / home offices, written by Monte Enbysk.

MYTHS:

• Turning your PC off uses more energy than leaving it on. Not true. The small surge of power you use when turning it on -- which varies per PC make and model -- is still much smaller than the amount you use in keeping it on for lengthy periods.
• Turning your PC on and off wears it out. A decade ago, there was something to this, but not today, say Hershberg and others. It used to be that PC hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off, and that frequent on/off cycling could damage the hard disks. Today's PCs are designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles before a failure, and that's a number you likely won't reach during the computer's five-to-seven-year life span.
• Screen savers save energy. Not true. Screen savers, at a minimum, can use 42 watts; those with 3D graphics can use as much as 114.5 watts, according to Don McCall, a Dell product marketing manager who does power measurement studies for the PC manufacturer. "It's absolutely wrong thinking that a screen saver will save energy," he says.
• Your computer uses zero energy when "off." That's true only if it is unplugged. Otherwise, the PC utilizes "flea power," or about 2.3 watts, to maintain local-area network connectivity, among other things, McCall says. In "hibernate" mode, your PC uses the same 2.3 watts; in "sleep" mode, your PC uses about 3.1 watts. Monitors do use zero energy when turned off.
• Lab tests done by Dell show that a PC running Microsoft Office uses 42.7 watts, McCall says. If it runs continuously at that rate for 365 days, at 7 cents per kilowatt-hour, the power consumption costs would be $26.18 for the PC and $45.99 for a regular monitor, for a total of $72.17 for the workstation.
• Flat-panel monitors use less energy (22 watts when left on, 3.3 watts in "sleep" mode) than regular monitors (75 watts when left on, 5 watts in "sleep" mode), McCall says. So the same workstation with Microsoft Office running for a year would use $39

So, you know what... off to totally unplug, build a fire, take the Crick for a walk, and make some organic whole wheat pasta.... wahhoo!
- Jen

The only thing sad with us getting digital fax machines and copiers is that the opportunity to scan your derrière are getting fewer and far between.

I remember when one of my friends photo copied his bum in a grocery store in Atlanta..we were probably 12. It was so funny to see his pre-pubescent emergent butt pimples come out so crystal clear on the black and white photo copy. Then, a few years later you could do this and then fax it!

Okay, so clearly I have either a) hit the organic vino a little to hard, or b) am longing for the days of good ol' fashion fun, where you could play jokes and not get sued, or c) both of the above.

Have any of you Biters ever photo copied a body part? Free Biter tee to the best story.

- Off to drink a big glass of water and get to bed...Jen

Generally speaking, I don't get too much  junk mail (which is not to say that I don't get a lot of mail that gets thrown out eventually).

My problem is that - even though I filled out the DMA's form and stopped getting basic junk mail, I do get a lot of catalogs by request, and quite a few magazine subscriptions (for some unknown reason, without ever signing up, Rolling Stone started being delivered to me about a month ago.  I'm not complaining about that one).

In any case, part of my resolutions for this year include cutting back on said magazines and catalogs, because let's face it - with no commute, who has time to read magazines anyway?  I got a stack of books a mile long next to my bed and hardly make a dent anymore.

So, I am letting my magazine subscriptions die off and have opted out of most catalogs.

And I'm CERTAIN that I will still have more mail than I know what to do with.

Meanwhile, we got a submitatip this morning (if you don't know, you can always send an email to submitatip@idealbite.com and let us know your favorite green tips for potential publication and mad fame) that was pretty smack on.  It will probably be a tip much later in the year, but while we are on the subject, I thought I'd share.  It comes from Biter Charlene Green of Farmington Hills, MI, and I'm cutting and pasting in its entirety below.

-Heather... off to major strategy sessions for 2006 Biting fun...