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Paperless Challenge - Only the Start - Can You Take it Further

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Education & Training with Glasswork Media Arts
Paperless Challenge - Only the Start - Can You Take it Further

So Bob Stewart threw down the challenge,  go paperless. It is great to see so many people here in the Rain sharing their ways of going running an Eco Smart office. It got me thinking about the whole concept, is paperless where we can stop, is paperless all we need to be thinking about? As I stated in my post related to the challenge I believe that simply getting people to recognize the amount of energy, paper, etc waste. I would really like to take that next step. So I have come up with some ideas that maybe you too can establish and add to your office management.

1. Office meetings, one of the staples of the real estate industry is the weekly office meeting. Personally I cannot stand them, if I can avoid them I do. How many weekly meetings have you attended that you drove into the office specifically for the meeting, only to leave and drive right back home at the closing of the meeting. Why not have virtual meetings, attendance can still be mandatory, and with todays technology it would is not hard to do. Why is it we trust Realtors to take classes online, but we make them come into the office physically for meetings. How much gas is being burned un-necessarily going back and forth for one meeting. Do it online.

2.  What about office furniture, is it all made from wood, does it always have to be brand new, can you get away with refurbished or rebuilt office furniture. If you need to buy new would you consider eco friendly office furniture?

3. How about something as simple as bringing in your own coffee cup, do you supply cups and plastic spoons, how about Realtors suppling their own mugs, and spoons.

4. Do you make sure that all computers are turned off at the end of the day, leaving computers on is huge energy waster, or what about using blackle.com. Most search engines use a white background, that white background is a big green house producer. Use blackle.com, it is powered by Google so you still get Google based searches, but with a black background.

I think the biggest part of changing an accepted way of doing business is to change the mindset first. If people would just start thinking in an alternative mode is half the battle. Do you have a team in your office who's job it is to find ways to operate the office in a Eco Smart fashion. I like these type of challenges because it makes me think, and I almost always learn about new ways of doing things. So maybe we could come up some ways to take the paperless challenge one step further.

Comments (8)

Bryan Cerny
Rose & Womble Realty - Chesapeake, VA

Great challenge...I accept!

Feb 20, 2011 06:40 AM
Dr. Stacey-Ann Baugh
Century 21 New Millennium - Upper Marlboro, MD
A doctor who makes house calls.

Great challenge.  I've already been doing some of these.  We furnished our office completely with used furniture from a charity thrift store.  We also don't do weekly meetings.  We communicate via email as much as possible.  I'm still working on going paperless.

Feb 20, 2011 06:46 AM
Sharon Tara
Sharon Tara Transformations - Portsmouth, NH
Retired New Hampshire Home Stager

Great ideas, Gerry!  My husband just bought a new eco friendly ceramic travel coffee mug today. 

Feb 20, 2011 11:26 AM
Nina Rogoff
Boston, MA
Wix Websites for Real Estate Agents

These are great suggestions, Gerry! You're right...a challenge like this does generate new ideas and helps to give all of us a "kick start". Thanks!

Feb 20, 2011 11:48 AM
Richard Iarossi
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Crofton, MD
Crofton MD Real Estate, Annapolis MD Real Estate

Gerry,

The paperless challenge is something that we all should strive to complete. 

Rich

Feb 20, 2011 01:05 PM
Carrie Trotter
National Property Inspections - Dayton, OH
Home Inspector

I need to talk to the State about going paperless. We gave a CE class last week and we were required to have handouts of the presentation for each attendee. We had 120 slides and 33 people. We did what we could to lessen the load of paper but it was still a lot of trees we killed copying that presentation!

We definitely need to be more Eco Smart!

Feb 20, 2011 11:03 PM
Liz Wallace
Century 21 Sherlock Homes - Rockville Centre, NY
Broker C21 Sherlock Homes, Rockville Centre, LI, N

We do the best we can, I almost never do print advertising, bills on line, no balloons for open houses and we use the back of all the insane faxes we get for scrap paper.

Feb 21, 2011 04:54 AM
Ellie McIntire
Ellicott City Clarksville Howard County Maryland Real Estate - Ellicott City, MD
Luxury service in Central Maryland

These are excellent suggestions. I save the planet everyday by NOT drinking a cup of coffee from a disposable cup (or any other cup for that matter :))

Feb 21, 2011 11:50 AM