Image courtesy of the US Navy; public domain.

Sometimes recycling isn’t just about being kind to the earth – it’s about sanctifying recent history.

Case in point – the USS New York, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport. More than seven tons of steel in its bow stem comes from scrap recycled from the smoldering ruins of Ground Zero, the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

In the wake of the September attacks, New York Governor George E. Pataki requested that the Navy name one of its ships USS New York, to commemorate the victims of the tragedy.     (read more)

Office furnishing is tough enough when you’ve got a budget to stick to, even more so when you prefer to purchase furniture that has a minimal impact on the environment.

You can solve both problems by turning to green, remanufactured office cubicles and furniture.

Thanks to the ongoing recession, used office furniture has reached new highs in supply and new lows in cost. Modern remanufacturing techniques can give them a new lease on life, creating products that are re-engineered to look, feel, and work like their brand new counterparts.

Cubicles.com’s remanufacturing process is a perfect case in point.

Cubicles.com goes to great lengths to totally repurpose the original cubicles. More than 85% of the original furnishings are incorporated into the finished cubicles; only 1,000 pounds of every 60,000 pounds of furniture received weekly goes back to the landfill.

Cubicles.com also resorts to sustainable practices that make a minimum impact on the environment. Cubicles.com’s powder coat painting process reclaims unused paint and emits fewer toxic chemicals. Discarded materials are recycled or used as shipping material. Even the signature fabrics used in the remanufactured cubicles are actually made from recycled materials like plastic bottles.

An unmistakably high-quality product comes out at the end, one with a surprisingly affordable price tag. At last, Cubicles.com remanufactured office furniture lets you satisfy your inner environmentalist… without alarming your inner accountant.

The green office is here to stay, as more office managers realize that going green is more than a conscientious effort to save the planet, it also protects the health of their employees and saves the bottom line.

The green office trend may already be in your workplace, showing up as one or more of these things:

Telepresence. Google uses high tech in deceptively simple ways to minimize its carbon footprint. For example, business travel has been slashed to a bare minimum through the use of videoconferencing, reports the New York Times – not a tiny gesture when you consider that Google has 119 offices all around the world.

“Hundreds of meetings per day are done via videoconference,” says Google project manager Adam Banks. “The technology is primarily about making the company work better, but it has the nice effect of saving on carbon as well.”

(read more)