Lots of people are talking about becoming eco-friendly. People who are actually doing something about it, though, are considerably fewer. If you are thinking about becoming greener in the ofice, here are four ways we have found that might help you do it.

1. Recharge with solar power.

If you have a window with a reliable source of sunlight (how many of us in the UK wish we did?) or if you can contrive to work outdoors on sunny days — then you have what you need to recharge some electric appliances, your mobile phone at a minimum.

Laptops, being the power-hungry beasts they are, demand more power than most solar chargers can supply. The Solar Gorilla just might be the solution. Available from Nigel’s Eco Store, it has collapsible solar panels and it generates a full 10 watts of electricity. When the sun is shining on it, of course.

It comes with a pack of fifteen connectors for hooking up to just about anything electrical that you can think of.

Here’s a link: http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Solar_Laptop_Charger.html?adnetwork=wg

2. Use an energy-saving power bar.

According to the Energy Savings Trust, TVs on stand-by cost UK consumers £88 million every year and produce 480,000 tonnes of CO2. Is all this really to necessary?

Perhaps a better solution that relying on appliances’ “standby” mode is a power bar that minimizes energy thoughput. The Multi-Socket for instance uses only 0.19 watts in its standby mode. The wasted standby-electricity it saves in its first year will probably pay for itself several time over.

Here’s a link: http://www.savasocket.com/products/multi-socket-6.html

3. Put an energy-savings lamp on your desk.

If you read from a lot of paper documents and you don’t have a lamp on your desk, you are probably risking eye strain. Here, though, is a way to be easy on both yourself and the environment: a low-energy desk lamp.

There are several of these available but this one is our favourite. It features not a bulb or a tube but 42 tiny LED lights and uses only 3 watts of electricity. It generates a whiter, brighter light than conventional incandescent lamps and the LEDs have an expected service life of 100,000 hours.

This comes from the lighting people at Clifford James, and here is the link to it: http://www.clifford-james.co.uk/online.cfm/lighting/led-energy-saving-desk-lamp/68/yes/58946

4. Staple — without staples.

According to government statistics, if everyone in a UK office were to use just one fewer staple per day, we would save 72 tonnes of metal a year.

The pocket-size Eco Stapler is staple-free. It fixes pages by stitching them together with a unique cut-and-fold technique. It works only up to three sheets but, on the plus side, it works with things like checques and payment slips where staples and paper clips are impractical.

Another offering from Nigel’s Eco Store, it is available here: http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Eco_Stapler.html?adnetwork=wg