With the go-green phase upon us, everyone is looking to do their part. These 5 little changes will give your business an eco-friendly outlook and help decrease your carbon footprint.  While most small companies are environmentally aware, the following tips will surprise even the biggest of tree-huggers!

1. Nitro PDF: An alternative to Adobe PDF, Nitro PDF is about one-third of the cost. This program can easily create and send individual PDF files for clients, limiting the amount of paper used for traditional reports.

2. PDF995 Printer Driver: While the name might sound a little scary, the software is surprisingly simple. The PDF Printer Driver is an excellent way to digitally render invoices, graphic mock-ups, and long text documents, without touching a piece of paper or a scanner.

3. Fax to E-mail Services: While fax machines are becoming a thing of the past, this is a way you can jump ahead. Join a service such as “eFax“, “UnityFax“, or “jConnect” which allows you to set your incoming phone number to an e-mail address, so new faxes will go straight to your inbox.

4. EchoSign Online Contracts: The idea behind EchoSign is to elimminate the amount of paper used for contracts signed with clients, businesses, employees, etc. EchoSign has the same binding powers as a conventional contract while maintaining an ecological position. As with most internet-based programs, EchoSign speeds up the execution process up; an added perk for being nice and saving all those trees!

5. Online Backup and Record Keeping: Archiving your records and files can be a total pain in the bum, and even e-mail can get a little confusing at times. Online record keeping can be an extremely helpful option for businesses looking to save time and money. Here are a few services we recommend: Box.net, DropBox, Mozy, and Backblaze.

What else can you do to decrease your company’s carbon footprint? Have you made any successful ecological changes in your business?

See how one small business implemented some great workplace policies that are all about being green!

Welcome to our first installment of TV on Tuesday, where we bring you our favorite clips from around the web.  They could be funny, they could informative, they could be irreverent or simply irrelevant…but every Tuesday, they’ll be here, waiting for you to click and view.  Today, we bring you Alexis Ohanian, the founder of Reddit, as he gives a Ted Talk on the naming of Mister Splashy Pants.  While this talk is certainly humorous (and how could a talk about Mister Splashy Pants not be?), at its heart is a message about how social media changes how we process information.  When using the web to convey the message, we are essentially setting it free; we are relinquishing the control that newspapers, television and other, older forms of information conveyance have both used and relied on for years.  So, without further adieu, we set this clip free and bring you:  How to Make a Splash in Social Media, with Alexis Ohanian and, of course, Mister Splashy Pants.

ABCey Events can help you take a few easy steps to make your event greener. Planning Green meetings has become a major initiative for many professional meeting planners and corporate travel departments.

Choose a Local Venue:
When selecting that perfect setting, why not keep global warming in mind? We will work with you to select a convenient location also help to arrange for carpools or transportation options to the event as well. Encourage your guests to carpool and pair up people who live close to one another. For those who come by public transportation, bike, and foot give low-waste door prizes like a coupon for a cup of fair-trade, organic coffee from the locally-owned coffee shop, or a bag of freshly baked cookies made from organic flour and “Bird-Friendly” chocolate.

E-vite Your Guests:
Emailing invitations save paper and money, especially if you have an extended guest list. We can also use social media to create a group for your event and create buzz around it. There are many websites that provide free email invitation services, however if a printed copy is an absolute must, we can use postconsumer recycled paper or flower seed paper, which can actually be planted in your garden.

Local Food:
Depending on the type of food you are looking to serve, we will choose a restaurant or caterer from our list that uses food and ingredients from local farmers. We can also work with a local food bank to pick up or deliver any leftovers.

Grow some of your own food:
If you’ve never tried planting a vegetable garden before, now is the time to begin. Start with easy to grow vegetables such as: radish, squash, beans, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, and herbs. Try growing your own “signature salad” for the event. Reduce the amount of meat you serve or consider a vegetarian menu:In relation to our diet, animal products are one of the largest contributors to global warming. Plan your menu so that there is less emphasis on large meat portions and replace with either tasty plant-based options, or with grass-fed, pasture-raised products instead.

Offer rainforest certified coffee and chocolate:
Organic, fair-trade and shade-grown products can still be problematic to our diminishing rain forests. Look for one of two seals: “Smithsonian Institute Bird-Friendly,” or “Rainforest-Friendly.” To accompany your coffee, don’t forget to serve organic cream, organic GMO-free soymilk and fair-trade, organic sugar.

Serve green drinks:
Organic spirits and “green” wines (sustainably grown) are becoming more popular and there are some excellent choices. Unfortunately, the “USDA Organic” label isn’t always enough to really know what is the best quality. Look for products from smaller companies that can be contacted for information on growing and production practices.

Use Reusable, Recyclable, or Biodegradable Tableware:
We can use cloth napkins and real tableware to reduce the amount of waste that will need to be disposed of. Alternatively, we can also provide post consumer recycled content paper napkins and biodegradable plates, cups and utensils, which will degrade faster than other types of single use tableware.

Buy in bulk and purchase and serve things with less packaging:
Don’t serve appetizers or drinks with throwaway plastic spoons, stirrers or bowls. Use biocompostable products like peppermint sticks or wooden popsicle stirrers for drinks. For food, try hollowed out cucumbers for individual appetizer bowls, a wide carrot slice when you need a spoon for something savory, and ice cream cone bowls with a thin biscotti spoon for dessert.

Clean up with green cleaning products:
Natural cleaning products are gaining in popularity and work well in the kitchen. Wash your tablecloths, napkins and towels, and clean counters, dishes and tabletops with biodegradable, earth-friendly detergent. Use only as much as needed. If you must use paper towels for cooking or cleaning, get unbleached, brown paper towels. And for whatever waste you have (hopefully, it’s not too much), use biodegradable trash bags; either brown paper bags or biocompostable ones. Find all these products at natural foods stores, online, and even at some of the larger chain grocery stores.

Offset your Carbon Emissions:
Got leftover carbon waste? We all do. It comes from the energy used to do things like drive to the store to pick up party supplies, grow the food for the meal, and manufacture our chips and salsa. After reducing and recycling as much as possible, consider offsetting (mitigating) what’s left. Carbon offsets are payments you can make to a third party to remove or offset your own carbon emissions from the atmosphere. They can help to create new industries that work towards improving the Global Warming Diet and global warming in general, for example in areas such as renewable energy.