With the dipping economy and companies working on flex-schedules and working to do cutbacks, you might want to talk to your boss to see if you can start working from home.  If you do get to work from home, then you’re going to need to have a home office, so if you’re working on building a home office for your current job, or branching out on your own, consider making an eco-friendly home office.  

By having an eco-friendly home office, you will not only save money, but you’ll be helping the environment, as well.  You won’t have to drive to work, which will save on the commute, so you’ll save on gas and you will help reduce carbon emissions.  If you choose a well lit room in your home, you can keep from using the lights, unless you want to, which will save you on electricity.  By not having to go to work everyday, you’ll be saving yourself tons of money each year on work clothes and will have more flexible shopping options.

To keep your home office truly eco-friendly, you’ll want to start with the decorating and work up to your work procedures.  Here are some tips to get you started.

• When decorating, choose soothing, neutral colors and use paints that have less VOC’s, which are great for the environment and have bright, long lasting colors.  Choose recycled wood or choose furniture from a furniture resale shop.  This will save you money and you won’t cause fresh wood to be cut and processed for your office furniture.  If you’re getting new office equipment, you can look for more efficient computers, printers, monitors and lighting.  Or, you can skip the separate steps and just work with a lap top computer. 
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  Do as much as you can online.  Avoid printing documents if you can, or reuse the backs of paper to ensure that you aren’t using too much paper.  You can also buy recycled printer paper instead of traditional paper, which will help reduce your impact on the environment.
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   Use CFL’s in your home office for your lighting.  They are bright enough and efficient enough to keep on for hours, and they come in new user’s eye friendly colors that offer softer lighting than the traditional institutional lighting of the past.
  
•  Add plants to your home office to help it be more eco-friendly and help clean your office air.

Since so many people do work from home these days, it’s no wonder that they are looking for ways to make their home offices more eco-friendly and energy efficient.  If you’re building your home office from scratch, you can take additional measures to make your home office even more eco-friendly like bamboo or cork flooring and skylights to add even more natural lighting.