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It may seem cliché to say that one’s own company is “Going Green”, but that’s what we’re doing here at Forbes. Now one must understand that going green is a continual process and not an overnight change. It has been a process that Forbes has been working on for decades. How can this help your business? Forbes has implemented many of the practical steps listed below and is able to assist your business in doing the same. Feel free to contact our management team with questions.

In the years gone by Forbes has been passionate about being green. It has only been within recent years that it has been on the forefront of our customer’s minds. In an effort to share with other companies about what we have done here, as well as what you could do, we proudly present to you the following suggestions.

10 Practical Steps for Your Business to “Go Green”:

• Recycle Paper
  • Re-use paper that has only been used on one side
  • Make note pads out of partially used paper
  • Return paper to a recycling facility for a second life
• Print on both sides of paper
  • Setup copiers and printers to default to two-sided “duplexed” printing/copying
  • Contact your System Administrator or Service Company for aid with this
• Recycle spent print cartridges
  • Many office product companies will gladly take back your used toner cartridges
  • If your current office product company will not pick them up, find one that will for free
  • Donate your spent ink cartridges to a local non-profit. They can then, in-turn, sell them to recycling companies to earn money towards their ministry.
• Recycle office furniture
  • Offer your used office furniture to a non-profit, who could benefit from its use
  • Hire a company to remove the used furniture for refurbishment or resell
  • Ask your Office Furniture company to remove the old furniture when you replace it with new
• Change incoming faxes to be delivered to an e-mail inbox
  • Contact your System Administrator and ask them if your fax machine can route incoming faxes to a mail recipient instead of printing them out.
  • Contact your service company for aid if your System Administrator isn’t sure
• Replace old high-energy products with newer lower energy products
  • Newer products can be faster, saving you time
  • Newer Energy Star rated devices consume less electricity, saving you on your power bill
  • Newer products may offer new features that you previously didn’t have
  • Newer products may also offer a lower cost of ownership, saving you money with each use
• Replace multiple distributed ink printers (think desktop printers) with larger work-group networked printers
  • Small ink-based desktop printers are usually more expensive to operate than work-group printers
• Offer digital invoices or statements to customers
• Request digital “e” invoice or statements from your vendors
• Utilize e-mail instead of faxing or mailing communications
  • Request e-mail contacts from your customers
  • Request e-mail contacts from your vendors
• Use online digital catalogs instead of large, dated, print catalogs
  • Request access to vendors online systems

Forbes Green History

The beginning of going green for Forbes started years ago with our partnership with Dodd’s Recycling. Forbes has been recycling cardboard and paper with Dodd’s for years. We further expanded our recycling ability in 1999 with a strategic alliance in the toner cartridge business. Since then Forbes Office Solutions and you, our customers, have recycled over 10,000 toner cartridges saving them from ending up in the landfill. These cartridges then are rebuilt and made available to our customers as re-manufactured cartridges at a significant savings over OEM brand cartridges.

Forbes Office Solutions has also been at the forefront of recycling office furniture. Forbes has purchased hundreds of truckloads of furniture that has had minor defects. Our Scratch & Dent and used furniture has never before been in such high demand. This tells us that other businesses are starting to realize the value in recycling office furniture.

Forbes Continues to Go Green

Efforts continue here at Forbes to “Go Green” as we move to more communications that are digital. Each department is expanding its ability to communicate digitally. Our service department will begin to send more meter requests via e-mail or fax. Our Service technicians already receive service calls directly on their phones. Service call follow-ups will begin to be delivered through e-mail. Our statements and invoices will soon be available digitally, via e-mail or fax. Our Office Products catalog is completely available online. New flyers will be available through digital “flip books” on our website.

Cares Connection Donation

Forbes was honored to offer two employees and our truck for two full days to Iowa Telecom and Meals from the Heartland. Forbes provided support to Iowa Telecom to relocate office furniture and equipment that had been donated to Meals from the Heartland.  We encourage you to read what Scott Brunscheen has to say about the donation and Meals from the Heartland:

“In behalf of Meals from the Heartland, I want to thank you for donating your labor and transportation services to meals from the Heartland to bring two truckloads of donated office furniture and equipment from Newton to our new office in West Des Moines.”

“We are blessed to be living in the breadbasket of America, and few of us have ever experienced real hunger, The statistics are more than disturbing: every five seconds a child dies of hunger in the world, with more than 16,000 children dying every day. Meals from the heartland is dedicated to packaging and donating food to impact hunger in the world.”

“Last Fall, Meals from the Heartland saw more than 15,000 volunteers come together at Hy-Vee Hall over Labor Day weekend for the second annual food packaging event. Volunteers from every age and walk of life were represented, including individuals, schools as well as groups from businesses and churches. They worked together in teams of 8-10 people and their efforts resulted in 4,019,904 meals packaged that were shipped to Haiti and other parts of the world.”

“All of us associated with organizing Meals from the Heartland are proud of our friends and neighbors who support this cause, as well as the many businesses and churches for making this possible. Because of this support, Meals from the Heartland is the largest and most massive humanitarian effort of its kind in the country.”

“We give thanks to God for every prayer, gift of volunteer service and financial support that allows us to serve the poor. Thank you for your gift to support our mission!”

Sincerely,

Scott Brunscheen

To learn more about Meals from the Heartland, or to make a donation, please visit their website:

http://www.mealsfromtheheartland.org

Cares Connection Donation

Forbes Quick Print recently donated some much needed printing to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa, Newton Branch. Please take time to visit their website and learn more about how you too can help.

http://www.bbbsia.org

About BBBS:

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa (BBBSCI) is a non-profit mentoring agency founded in 1967 by local leaders. BBBSCI was formed to meet the glaring need in the community for a way to prevent at-risk children from entering the court system by providing them with a positive role model.

BBBSCI identifies children in need of a mentor and matches them with a caring individual. The relationship that develops between the matches helps the children grow into adulthood with the self-esteem and skills necessary to be productive citizens.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa mentors children, ages 6-14, in many communities from Dallas to Wapello County. We have offices in the Des Moines, Newton, Ottumwa and Oskaloosa.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa is a proud partner agency of United Way and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, who have been America’s preeminent national youth-serving organization for more than 100 years.