15 Ways to Save the World From Your Desk!

• ENJOY A FAIRTRADE BREW
  Fairtrade are the good guys, guaranteeing a better deal for Third World producers. If they were in an old-fashioned film, they'd be wearing white hats. In fact they'd probably be doing the catering. Because that's what they do, after all. In the UK we drink 31 billion cups of coffee every year.



• AVOID WASTE
  This sounds like a boring, worthy bit of advice. And maybe it is. Someone has calculated that if everyone in UK offices saved on staple a day, that would be 120 tonnes of metal saved in a year.



• PULL THE PLUG ON MOBILE PHONE CHARGERS
  Your mobile phone charger is more powerful than it looks. And 95% of the energy used by the phone chargers in this country is wasted. They're only charging phones for 5% of the time.



• TAKE THE STAIRS
  Lifts go wrong. Ever imagined being stuck in an upright box with eight colleagues? It's like doing the Christmas party sober. So take the stairs. It cuts down your chances of heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes.



• FIND OUT WHERE YOUR LUNCH COMES FROM
  The average kiwi fruit is flown in from New York and travels 12,000 miles to be part of your lunch. And, according to experts, that kiwi creates five times it's own weight in greenhouse gases getting here.



• START A CAR POOL
  Every day 10 million seats are empty on the road. Website http://www.liftshare.com/helps people find drivers and passengers. Who knows, you might find some new friends while saving the planet!



• RECYCLE WASTE PAPER
  Never throw paper away. There is no 'away'. We think it disappears into thin air. But it doesn't. It sticks around, for thousands of years. Every year we need a forest the size of Wales to provide all the paper we use in Britain.



• TAKE BREAKS
  Stress is infectious. If you get stressed out, you'll pass it on to someone else. So if you can avoid getting stressed out, you stop the vicious circle starting. And the best way to do this is to take breaks. The average British lunch 'hour' is now just 27 minutes.



• SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER PROPERLY
  One computer left on all day emits 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year. It would take 100 to 500 trees to absorb that amount of extra carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.



• LEAVE WORK ON TIME AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK
  In the UK, we work the longest hours in Europe. We should all leave work on time. Pack your things away and walk towards the door. If your boss stops you and says. 'What the hell are you doing? It's only half past three', get a new watch. But don't abandon the principle.



• PHOTOCOPY ON BOTH SIDES
  How would you feel if your hairdresser only cut the hair on the left-hand side of your head? There are two sides to every story - and two sides to every piece of paper. The amount of waste paper buried in the UK each year would fill 103,448 double-decker buses.



• EARN FEWER AIR MILES
  Cheap air travel is a nice thing. So asking you to cut back on it sounds like the killjoy equivalent to someone saying 'cut back on music'. But look at the facts. Air travel is the fastest growing contributor to climate change, spewing nearly 10 times more CO2 into the sky than an equivalent train journey. Or 100% more CO2 than not travelling at all and opting for a video conference call once in a while.



• USE A BIRO FROM START TO FINISH
  People throw things away too easily. They throw away their charming childhood illusions. Their talent. Their marriages. A plastic pen in landfill will still be there in 50,000 years. Daily worldwide sales figures of Biros exceeded 14 million pens.



• GET OFF ONE STOP EARLY
  We'd all be a lot healthier if we got off our trains and buses and walked instead - 30 minutes walking a day cuts the risk of heart disease by half. It'll clear your brain as well. Each person in the UK walks over 50 miles less a year than 15 years ago.



• LOSE THE PLASTIC CUP
  Plastic cups are taking over the world and they are nasty. Vending machines disperse 3 billion cups per year in the UK. A further billion cups originate from other sources, and together these cups use 24,000 tonnes of polystyrene annually.