Home Office: Getting greener by the day

1. Natural Gas
   The first thing has probably had a positive impact on my gas bill more than anything else; Turning down the heat. About a month ago we turned our furnace down to 62 degrees. Instead of turning it up when we get chilly, we throw on a sweatshirt or slippers. Novel idea, right? We've lived in our new place since mid November and I knew from the start that heating this place (which is roughly 2000 sq. ft. larger than our last city house) would be a pain. It was, until a month ago. I also made a ritual of opening the blinds which lets in a lot of light (and heat) all day.
   
   
2. Lighting
   Our office/studio accounts for about a quarter of our house. I've changed many of the bulbs throughout our house. More specifially in our office and studio, I've changed 9 bulbs. I have 6 more can/recessed lights to go, which are dimmable. If I'm being honest, at nearly $20 a bulb I'm a little hesitant. During the day we leave the office lights off and at night I turn them on only when needed (I like to code in the dark).
   
   
3. Organic
   For lunch, when possible we've been eating organic fruits and vegetables. I just finished some Trader Joe's organic yogurt and Sarah had some organic baby carrots and cheese. This doesn't just go for the office, this is everywhere. We're trying to send a message to our local store by purchasing organic foods. Driving to Whole Foods in the city just doesn't always work with our schedule (or make sense) so we shop the modest but existent organic section at our local store. I even got some organic beer at Trader Joe's, although, I try my best to wait till after work to toss one back.
   
   
4. Recycle
   Since going green I've been a bit fanatical about recycling. We have a weekly recycling pick-up. We roll the carts out to the curb, it's that easy. Don't tell anyone but I've actually gone through the trash a few times to pull out recyclables that were accidentally thrown away. For whatever reason we didn't have a bin in our office. A week or two ago I emptied out an old rubbermaid tub, so now we're using that. I set it right in between Sarah's desk and mine. It fills fast!
   
   In addition to recycling, we have made an attempt at purchasing recycled goods. I haven't really followed up on the claims that Office Depot makes (the green seal certified) yet but it's a start.
   
   
   
5. Driving
   Most of our portrait sessions take place outdoors. In the past we were driving all over to do sessions. Now we mostly do them at 1 park and we schedule multiple sessions in one day. This means instead of driving to the park 3 times for 3 different clients, we drive 1 time. Do the math on the gas, it's roughly 30 miles to the park from here. Ouch!
   
   
6. Power
   I started turning my computer off at night. I have a 24" iMac (2.8GHz) and a 24" Dell Ultrasharp as my dual monitor. Sarah has the same machine with a 22" as the dual monitor. Talk about sucking down the juice! If it doesn't get turned off it gets put to sleep. This was hard for me at first because I'm a computer geek and waiting 30 seconds for the thing to boot up was like nails on a chalkboard. Now it's no problem, I've been training myself on the patience thing. :-)
   
   

So there we go! I'm doing what I can and am learning a lot along the way. I'm really just getting started and feel good about the changes that are taking place. You should give it a shot, if not for any other reason, do it to watch your gas bill / fuel bill / electric bill / etc. go way down. That might be motivation enough to get someone started right there.