Go Green – Hire a Freelance Professional!

Think Green! Hire a Freelancer!

In my little corner of the world, sitting in my home office, I was thinking about our planet and the things I do, or more accurately, don’t do, to help our country and planet become more “green” and conserve resources.

This all came about because I had recently watched a program on television (Oprah) about garbage dumps in our oceans and was appalled at what I learned. I’m also big into the Discovery channel, so other programs of this nature and what I learned definitely were nagging at me…waiting for an opportunity to jump out and grab me by the ears and give me a good shake. By this time, “I’m a Freelancer. How could I make a difference?” was echoing in my, by now, burning ears. Sorry for the dramatics, but this really touched me and brought about a change in my attitude: What opportunities do I have to actually make a difference as I sit here all nice ‘n comfy without supposedly a care in the world?

I’m not a zealot – I certainly don’t recycle like I should. I let opportunities pass me by when I could do something (that darn plastic jug went out with the “regular” trash. Arg.). Just what the dickens do I do on my end to help our planet? Is it out of sheer laziness that I don’t do more and I’m taking the “easy” way out. I’m not sure. Maybe the sense of urgency isn’t there. I’m not sure about that, either, because I do know that that program definitely got the old brain cogs turning. I want to dive in and do my part with enthusiasm, not because I have to, or should. How utterly disheartening my thought processes were.

So while pondering about all this, I decided to sit down and really think about what I do, and what I could do better. I do minor things like conserving water when I can, I don’t litter, I do recycle glass. I guess in all honesty, I’m a bit complacent. I don’t want to be self-satisfied and unconcerned about our environment. I want to be concerned and involved. I want to make a difference! Then it dawned on me – I am doing more than I think I am just because of the nature of my chosen profession. I’m a Freelancer!

Think about this… Just by the very characteristics of what a Freelancer is and how we do what we do, we as virtual professionals are contributing a heck of a lot more to our country and planet “going green” than I previously realized. And our clients by hiring us, without realizing it perhaps, are also in this linked chain of “green-ness.”

So, I sat down to prepare a list. Here is my short list of what I do to conserve and perhaps why you might consider hiring a Freelancing Professional to continue this “chain of green-ness.”

As a professional freelancer, I have NO commute to work - I work from my office in my home. I save gas. Remember? No commute. This in turn leads to very low vehicle repairs and maintenance, and also trickles to less traffic = less spent on roadway repairs. Not to mention pollution of our air.

I own my equipment in my office, saving other business owners from having the expense of this overhead. I use energy efficient computers and peripherals. This in turn saves on utility bills – and contributes to the conservation of resources.

I am almost a paperless office compared to when I worked in the corporate world. Documents are saved as electronic documents.

A while back I decided to go back to college. I attend college ONLINE.

I set my thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter and a few degrees higher in the summer to save on heating and cooling costs. I also use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), and I shut off my computer at night when I am done for the day.

Even though I don’t need to “dress up” for work anymore, I wash my clothes in cold water. And without the need to “dress up,” there is a lot less to wash!

Multiply everything by my client base, and you can see that it helps conserve resources across many “offices” across the country…and world! (Can’t forget about my over the pond clients!)

While writing this I have discovered that I do a lot more than I thought I did to help our environment. Is there room for improvement? Most certainly. I think I’ve got a very good beginning though!