12 Green Office Gadgets

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Transform your office into an environment-friendly, green workplace. Here are 12 gadgets to help you save the planet, one workday at a time.

LED Bulbs

They're still drastically more expensive than your basic light bulb, but they promise to pay for themselves in energy savings over the years.

RANT!

It's probably not the best time to buy LED bulbs yet. Lumens need to go up while price needs to go down.

LED Monitors

Older monitors are backlit using CCFL bulbs. Newer LED monitors seriously cut your power consumption by using energy-efficient LED bulbs.

RAVE!

Considering your work computer is probably open all day, any energy savings is good.

Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries

Tired of charging your rechargeable batteries only to find that they've gone dead after a few days? Not a problem with Sanyo's Eneloop batteries. They'll hold 75% of their charge for 3 years.

RAVE!

These are the king of rechargeable batteries, and possibly the last batteries you'll ever buy.

(Don't just keep your office green - keep yourself healthy too! Here are 12 Stress Busting Office Exercises.)

Solar Gadget Charger

Charge your gadgets with the power of the sun. Solar chargers like the FreeLoader Pro promise to free you from the grid.

RANT!

Nice idea, but slow charging times (7 to 9 hours when it's sunny) mean it's more a gimmick than the solution to global warming.

Biodegradable Garbage Bags

Let garbage decompose with the earth like Mother Nature meant it to. With biodegradable garbage bags, your office trash can do just that.

RAVE!

They're available in your local supermarket. And not that much more expensive than plastic garbage bags.

Soy Ink

Help save the planet by using printer toner that's made from soy instead of oil, like HP's environment-friendly toner, Soy Print.

RANT!

If you can't stop your officemates from printing, this is a great alternative. But the only green alternative is going paperless.

Western Digital Caviar

Lower heat and lower noise from WD Caviar hard drives mean lower power consumption as well -- up to 40%. And they're made from lead-free and sustainable materials.

RAVE!

It won't win any speed contests, but this is a deeply environmental hard drive.

D-Link Green Products

Even networking products are getting the green treatment. D-Link has its own line of energy-efficient routers, switches, you name it.

RAVE!

The office network is probably up 24x7, so it just makes sense to have energy-saving network equipment.

Stapleless Stapler

Traditional staplers are made from a non-renewable resource and end up as waste. Ditch the staplers and go with environment-friendly stapleless staplers.

RANT!

Only works for 5 pages at a time. You really want to save the world? Forget the staples and go paperless instead.

(RANT if it sucks, RAVE if it rocks - sharing your thoughts has never been this rewarding.)

"Green" Computers

Seems like everyone's got a "green" computer nowadays. The Mac Mini has a mere 85W power consumption. Dell has computer cases made out of bamboo.

RANT!

Increased consumption of so-called green gadgets isn't the answer. Consuming less is. Make do with your old computer until you absolutely must replace it, and when you do, replace it with one of these.

Solar-Powered Keyboard

This eco-friendly keyboard from Logitech holds a charge for up to three months. No more batteries or recharging.

RAVE!

It doesn't have a huge impact on the environment, but every little bit helps.

Water-Powered Calculator

Yes, you've got that right. This calculator runs on nothing but its H2O-powered battery.

RAVE!

Even better than a solar-powered calculator because it doesn't need sunlight.

What other green office gadgets can you suggest?