47% of small business owners are already taking steps to be environmentally responsible. (Gallup Survey, April 2007)

In two recent blog postings, we talked about digital reading versus paper. The focuses were on managing email without printing out many of the messages, and then reading books and newspapers comfortably online. The end goal of these measures is to save time and increase productivity.

There are other related positive results when the consumption of paper is lessened.

If you are striving to implement changes that make a difference in the environment, let your customers know about it. For example, especially in areas where air quality is an issue, if you are switching to the Toyota Prius for company vehicles, make a note of that on your website. Many companies have found that this actually is bringing in additional customers.

Joel Makower, founder of GreenBiz.com notes, “It is important to realize that greening a company is rarely about doing one big thing. It’s usually abuut dozens of little things.” Think about all the ways you could improve your office productivity and simultaneously cut down on costs. For example:

Adding these changes reflects many of the aims for a company: effective, efficient, productive, and economical.