WHY Survey: 52% of Work-at-Homers Have Eco Home Offices

As I sit here in my newly straightened-up work space, with a looming, still undecorated, green Christmas tree at my back, I am reminded about a poll that we conducted earlier this year in WHY magazine. We asked our readers how environmentally friendly or "green" their office was. The poll revealed that 52 percent of work-at-homers around the globe have semi- or mostly green home offices.

I thought the results were pretty encouraging. Forty-two percent of those polled said they’ve “taken some green steps” and 10 percent have a “mostly green” home office. Thirty-eight percent have a conventional home office but “hope to go green” in the future and 10 percent have a conventional office and “don’t have the interest in a green office.” No work-at-homers that were polled by WHY have a completely green home office.

Yes, I know... having a green Christmas tree has nothing to do with greening an office. I was thinking more about the newspapers and toner cartridges that were recycled. My office work space is far from being totally green, but I'm getting there -- although I still can't bring myself to unplug everything in the office every night as my green colleague Kristyn Lak Miller over at EcoVixen says I should. Something to work on...

Out with the Old, In with the Tree

It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which means it's time to put up our Christmas tree. As my husband and children scurry about piling up boxes in our living room, I'm trying to clear out the clutter that's already here. I’m sitting here at my “desk,” which amounts to a folding chair and home office armoire in my living room, and there are piles and piles (and piles) of papers surrounding me. When I moved my workspace up here from the basement, for the purposes of natural light and being closer to the kids, all my stuff came with me, and it’s been such a struggle keeping everything orderly.

We had an article recently in WHY magazine about paperwork—hiding it, organizing it, chucking it, etc. That’s what I’ll be spending a good part of this weekend doing. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who likes to jot down little nuggets of wisdom on stray papers, so you can imagine the job that’s ahead of me. Are those sleigh bells I hear in the distance?