The grass is always greener... in the other cube?

Ah, the great outdoors – green grass, blue skies, sunshine. Wouldn’t it be nice to bring a little bit of that into the office?

Look no further than the Breathing Partition from Yanko Design (via Geek Sugar). These super-cool cube dividers come equipped with an automatic watering system and room for all your favorite plants.

(Image via Yanko Design)

So, maybe the grass is always greener … in a Yanko cube.

Sustainable training: The new way to go green at work

Over the past few years, businesses across the country have been doing their part to reduce their carbon footprint in the earth by going green at work. Whether the motivating factors involve cutting costs or getting an edge on the competition, more are discovering the benefits of sustainability in business.

As part of their overall corporate green strategy, businesses may change the way they manufacture products or start buying recycled printing paper, but they may be overlooking one key area that could have a major impact on their green strategy -- the training department.

By not only training employees to learn new, greener ways to work, training departments can become leaders within any organization through the use of environmentally friendly training methods.

The definition of sustainable training will differ from business to business. A manufacturing company may be focused on reducing emissions, while a software development company is more focused on reducing waste in the office and finding eco-friendly ways to dispose of computer equipment.

Whatever the end goal is, the training department plays a key role in improving any organization’s impact on the environment. By shifting learning from the classroom to online platforms, training departments can lead by example.

Enrolling employees in online training and making learning resources available online or on the company Intranet are both great ways to start improving the sustainability of your organization’s training program.

Why choose sustainable employee training? Moving training and reference materials online can help businesses conserve natural resources in the following ways:

• Reduced fuel consumption. Since the material is online, employees use less fuel traveling to attend training classes.
• Reduced energy consumption. By reducing the amount of time spent in a traditional classroom, businesses save energy that would be used to light and air condition physical rooms.
• Less physical waste. When courses and materials are online, less paper is used to create training materials and reduces the amount of physical waste businesses create.
• Reduced costs. With sustainable training, businesses save money by reducing costs for printing, paper, travel costs and energy use.

When it’s necessary to send people to a physical location for training, find facilities that are accessible from public transportation or encourage employees to travel together in a carpool.

As you start to improve the sustainability of your training department, keep the three Rs in mind - reduce, reuse and recycle. Throughout the process, be thinking of new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle every day at work and in your employee training programs.

Every little green step can add up to big green changes for your organization. Discover more green business ideas and everyday ways businesses can reduce, reuse and recycle here.

Skip the gross, stage greener office pranks

In the wake of possibly the worst workplace prank ever recorded and posted on YouTube (thank you Domino's employees), we'd like to take a less disgusting and much friendlier approach to the office prank.

Whether it's filling your coworker's cube with packing peanuts or covering their walls with sticky notes, most office pranks create unnecessary waste. Now you can still be funny while keeping the environment in mind by playing greener office pranks.

Here are just a few ideas:

• Stage a kidnapping. Kidnap all the plastic water bottles from your coworkers and replace them with eco-friendly reusable mugs. Leave a ransom note with the reason for the swap.
• Paper saver. This one's for that employee who always prints way too much. Get onto their computer and change their printer settings to ".pdf writer" or another option that doesn't go straight to the printer.
• Indoor guerrilla gardening. Pick up a bunch of indoor plants and do a little indoor guerrilla gardening on a coworkers desk by covering their workspace with a collection of greenery.

The video below by Grist's Umbra Fisk shares some great ideas for going green in the office, plus an added green office prank that should go over well with most of the eco-friendly pranksters and The Office fans out there.

April Fool's Day was only a few weeks ago and we know you were a part of at least a prank or two. Leave a comment and share your ideas for the greenest office pranks going around.

How to turn your workspace into a green oasis

Many of us have found ways to go green at home, from carrying groceries in reusable shopping bags, to eco-friendly light bulbs and buying produce from local markets, but not as many are doing much to go green at work.

Going green at work involves many of the same decisions you've made to become more environmentally friendly at home. With more offices jumping on the green bandwagon, creating a green workspace has become easier than ever before.

Here are eight tips to make greening your workspace even easier:

• Buy a plant. Plants improve the quality of the air by removing pollutants like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. Putting a plant on your desk is an efficient way to improve the air quality in your office.


• Print less. Think twice when you go to hit that print button - Do you really need a hard copy? Could you print double-sided?


• Print with soy-based ink. When you have to use the printer, print your documents using eco-friendly, soy-based ink.


• Buy recycled. From printer paper to the labor law posters on the wall, buy products and office supplies that are made from recycled materials


• Turn off the lights. Turn off the lights in your office or meeting room when you're not there. Also think about replacing the light bulbs with an energy saving bulb.


• Turn off your computer. When you leave the office at the end of the day, completely turn off your computer rather than leaving it powered all night. Shut off all the other appliances in your office while you're at it.


• Use real silverware. When it's time for lunch, use your own plates and silverware from home, rather than going through dozens of plastic utensils and plates each week.


• Avoid the vending machine. Instead of buying a new bottle of water from the vending machine everyday, buy a reusable water bottle that you can wash and refill without creating waste.

Going green at the office can be an easier process than you once may have thought. Implement a few of these tips for making your workspace eco-friendly and encourage your coworkers to do the same.