You’re in a bind.

You’ve gotten the “green” bug at work. You believe recycling, saving energy, and reducing paper use, among other steps, would help your company become more environmentally responsible. But your boss could care less. Or maybe, the boss cares, but is so swamped worrying about other issues, s/he just doesn’t have time to consider how much paper the office is using or whether employees are telecommuting to save energy.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be the company’s chief executive officer to become one of its chief environmental officers, at least not in the literal, corporate ladder sense. In fact, thousands of employees are taking the initiative to reduce their environmental impact on the job. And often, that initiative inspires company executives to follow suit.

Here are a few ways you can go green at work without it being part of your job description:

Form a car pool. Your initial motivation might be to share the expense and stress of driving. But the environmental benefit you’ll realize will come from burning significantly less gas. If two of you drive together, you cut your individual use in half. If four of you drive, you’re reducing the impact of each one of you by 75%!

Print only the final copy. Millions of pieces of paper are wasted every year by employees who print one rough draft after another until they get the final right. The greener option is to circulate rough drafts electronically. Your employer shouldn’t complain, since you’ll be saving so much money on paper and ink.

Bring your lunch to work. You might think of this as a money-saving strategy, and it is: by some estimates, you can save close to $1600 every year just by bringing lunch from home. But as it turns out, many actions that save you money help protect the planet, too. In this case, when you use a reusable lunch box and durable sandwich and snack containers instead of paper lunch bags and plastic baggies, you throw away far less trash. Day after day, it really adds up.

Use a reusable water bottle and coffee mug. This should be a no-brainer. Keep a reusable coffee mug at your desk, and a durable water bottle for your commute in your purse or briefcase. Both are easily refilled for free or pennies, at the most. And once again, you’ll significantly reduce the amount of trash you create.

Wear wash-and-wear clothing. Many companies have already instituted “casual Fridays” to allow employees to wear less formal attire on the last day of the week. But you should choose nice wash-and-wear clothes over those requiring dry cleaning every day you can. Dry cleaning is not only expensive; it relies on nasty chemicals to get the dirt out.  Laundering your clothes at home using eco-friendly detergents is the greener way to go.

Form a “green team.” Invite others in your office or business to brainstorm low- or no-cost ways the company can become a better environmental citizen. Can you use the company intranet to remind others to turn off the lights or the printers? Can you create a lending library of useful books and other resources? Can you invite speakers to address your community during the lunch hour or on days when the company sponsors employee fairs?

Turn off the lights, computers, and other electronics. Most companies should have a “power off” policy in place, but even if they don’t, you can adopt one for yourself.

The bottom line is this: You don’t need to occupy the executive suite to be your own chief environmental officer. Simple steps like the ones described here will cost your company no money and require very little, if any, corporate oversight. Besides, who says you can’t be a role model for the boss? One definition of a leader is “someone who rushes to get in front of the people he’s following.” Keep that in mind the next time you wonder whether you should bother bringing your lunch to work.

Buying energy-efficient home energy systems, appliances, and cars can save you loads of money by reducing your energy consumption.  But the upfront cost of investing in efficient technologies can make ditching your old energy guzzlers for new energy sippers seem prohibitive. Federal and state tax credits help defray your purchase costs (image source). Here’s how: 

Federal Energy Efficiency Tax Credits

Home Renovations: You can earn up to 30% in federal tax credits on the first $1,500 you spend on improving the energy efficiency of your home.  These credits apply only to existing home renovations and not to new construction. Remember: a tax credit is better than a deduction because it actually reduces the amount of money you pay tax on at the end of the year.

Qualifying products include energy-efficient:

• windows and doors
• insulation
• roofs
• central air conditioners, furnaces, and boilers
• water heaters
• biomass stoves (like those that burn wood, wood pellets, dried corn, etc.)

This credit expires at the end of 2010, so act sometime in the next eleven months to take advantage of this benefit.

Alternative Energy Substitutions: If you’ve been thinking of transitioning to a renewable home energy system, you have until the end of 2016 to use tax credits to help defray the expense.  These credits are also being offered at 30% of cost, but with no upper limit (in other words, if you spend $20,000 putting solar panels on your roof, the credits could generate as much as a $6,000 tax credit). Qualifying systems include:

• geothermal heat pumps
• solar panels
• solar water heaters
• small wind energy systems

The EnergyStar website offers more details on what systems qualify and which ones don’t.

Federal Hybrid Vehicle Tax Credits

When I bought my hybrid Prius in 2002 for around $20,000, I received $4,000 in tax credits: $2,000 from the IRS, and $2,000 from my state government. Today, the rules for hybrid vechicle credits are a little more complicated.  Hybrids purchased after December 31, 2005 are eligible for a credit up to $3,400, but that number declines once the car manufacturer sells over 60,000 units of a particular hybrid model.  GM and Chrysler are still offering full credits; Ford is offering reduced credits until the end of March 2010.  The credits are subject to change, so check back frequently.

State Credits

Many states have created their own financial incentives for going green.  Check out DSIRE.org for a comprehensive list of what your state can offer you, including tax credits, rebate programs, and much more.

 Are “organic” dry cleaners popping up in your neighborhood?

Are they legit, or another greenwashing scam? Here’s the low-down:

What Makes A Dry Cleaner Green?

It’s not PERC.

Just because a dry cleaner claims to be “organic” doesn’t mean it’s free of toxic chemicals. That’s because, scientifically speaking, any chemical is considered to be organic if it contains carbon. So even cleaners that use a solvent like perchloroethylene (PERC), which has been classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen, can claim to be organic. An ad for “green” dry cleaners doesn’t necessarily mean much, either, since there is no standard definition for what makes cleaning green.

Hydrocarbon solvents are in the same boat. Hydrocarbon solvents are petroleum-based, says Sierra Club, and contribute to greenhouse gases by emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Solvents to avoid are: DF2000, PureDry, EcoSolve, Shell Solution 140 HT and Stoddard.

And that GreenEarth method you may have seen around? It does not necessarily translate into ‘green-for-the-earth.’ GreenEarth cleaners replace PERC with a silicone-based solvent called methyl siloxane or D5, which is similar to the base ingredients used in deodorants and shaving creams. The solvent itself is currently considered safe for the environment because it degrades to sand, water, and carbon dioxide, says the Union of Concerned Scientists, but it has caused cancer in lab animals in EPA studies. In addition, it is manufactured using chlorine, which can generate harmful dioxin emissions.

The good news?

Safe, non-toxic alternatives do exist. And they are just as effective as traditional dry cleaning, minus the negative impacts on the environment.

• Wet-cleaning replaces PERC with carefully controlled amounts of water and special non-toxic biodegradable detergents. Computer-operated equipment helps ensure that your delicate fabrics are cleaned without the risks to human health or the environment. You can find more details here.
• Carbon dioxide (CO2) cleaning relies on high pressure to convert carbon dioxide gas into liquid that acts as a carrier for biodegradable soaps. When the washing is complete, the pressure is released, turning the CO2 back into a gas to be used again and again. One drawback: the requisite machinery is expensive, so this method costs more than PERC-based dry cleaning.

If you want to locate the nearest reliably green cleaner, check out this national directory recently published by Occidental College.

The U.S. EPA also offers a nationwide list of CO2 and wet cleaners that was compiled in 2003.

Keep in mind that not all “dry clean only” garments need to be professionally dry-cleaned. Green living expert and Care2.com editor Annie Bond provides safe, eco-friendly instructions on hand-washing silk, wool and rayon clothing, here. My daughter regularly washes her wool sweaters on the cold, delicate cycle in the washing machine, then line dries them. Cheap, effective.

The most obvious solution of all? Transition your wardrobe to wash-and-wear clothing that requires no dry cleaning. You’ll save money on cleaning bills and breathe easier knowing you’re reducing your exposure to questionable chemicals.

BONUS: Discover easy, simple ways to clean out your closet this season, and how your wardrobe transition can make a world of a difference, here.

In 2005, Americans used and discarded 14.4 billion disposable paper cups for hot beverages, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Vermont calculated. That’s so many cups that if put end to end they would circle the earth fifty-five times! Based on anticipated growth of specialty coffees, reports Green Mountain, that number will grow to 23 billion by 2010-enough to circle the globe eighty-eight times.

It’s one thing to pay two or three or even four dollars for a cup of coffee. It’s another to throw cup after cup away. If we do it every day, it amounts to almost twenty-five pounds of waste every year. The petrochemicals consumed in making the cups just one coffee drinker tosses could heat 8,300 homes for one year. Carting them to a landfill burns additional energy, never mind the fact that each one takes about five hundred years to decompose.

What good does it do if you buy the “right” coffee (i.e., organic, shade-grown, Fair Trade Certified) if you drink it out of a paper or Styrofoam cup you just toss in the garbage?

Beat the disposable rap by using your own mug. Every coffee shop sells them. Some places even give you a little discount if you use your own cup instead of theirs- if they don’t, ask for one. They’ll get the message after a while.

And if you forget your mug and need a take-out cup, ask the shop if they’re using the new ones made from recycled fibers that save trees. Do they make a difference? Starbucks’ recycled paper cup protects about 78,000 trees a year. Another option? Coffee cups you can compost.

Wondering what kind of coffee to buy? We’ve already figured it out!

And here are some suggestions if you’re in the market for an eco-friendlier coffee pot.

Excerpted from Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World.   For more easy and affordable green living tips, visit Big Green Purse.

I am taking the opportunity to reiterate why I created Big Green Purse, a campaign to motivate women especially to channel their spending power into social and environmental change.

It is because I believe…

• The fastest, most effective way to stop polluters is by pressuring them in the marketplace
• Women can be the world’s most powerful economic and environmental force if we intentionally shift our spending to the best green products and services
• Women have the power right now to solve many of our most serious environmental problems by using our green purses to make a difference
• Women must act – intentionally, collectively, and with the full force of our purse power behind us – if we hope to leave our children and grandchildren a better world.

Women spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace. I believe we should tell manufacturers what to make; they should not be telling us what to buy.

I believe we only have as much power as we exercise. I also believe exercising our power gives us more.

I believe it is not too late … but it will be soon.

As the saying goes, if not us, who? If not now, when?

I believe it is up to us, and we must act now.

Excerpted from Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World. For more easy and affordable green living tips, visit Big Green Purse.