Ecominded Mama

Ecofont

I love this one: By changing your font, you can use 20% less ink when printing documents. Ecofont has tiny holes in it that are imperceptible at 10 point and below (I can see them if I look really hard when printed in 11 point on my pretty low-end HP laser printer). The font was easy to download and install (clear instructions are provided) -- the only trick for me was looking for the font under its full name of "Spranq eco sans" rather than "ecofont" in Word's font list. It looks a little lighter on-screen, too, so I'd say it's best for people that actually print their documents, not just read them on-screen.

Printing emails and other documents

I just got an email from Virginia.org related to an article I'm writing, and the signature file on one representative's email really struck me:

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

I've never seen a statement like that in an email message, much less one from a government agency. I don't work in an office anymore, but when I did I printed out documents (including emails) all day long. I never once considered how much paper I might be wasting or whether or not I truly needed a printed copy of an email that I could file electronically. I don't print very many documents these days, but that statement has inspired me to print even fewer.