Save Paper, Ink with Free Software

jplatt — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:00:00 -0500

I first wrote about GreenPrint World -- a great computer program that helps you reduce the amount of paper and ink you use in your computer printer -- several months ago, but a little voice told me it was time to write about it again. And that voice was right. Because now, for the first time, GreenPrint World is available for Macs.

GreenPrint World is free for PC users (or $29 for a premium version that does not display advertising), and $29 for Mac users (you can also get a free 30-day trial). Each version of the program analyzes your print job, then lets you decide what elements to print and which ones to skip (say, photographs, or the legal disclaimers at the bottom of a web page). It keeps track of how many pages you don't print, allowing you to "track your impact" (how much paper you have used, or how much ink you have saved) and monitor your overall printing habits.

You can also use GreenPrint World to generate PDFs of any document, allowing you to keep a digital copy of a web page instead of printing it at all.

According to GreenPrint Technologies LLC, "GreenPrint saves the average user over $90 and 1,400 wasted pages per year and allows enterprises to quantify the ecological and cost-saving benefits that result from using the software."

There's one more new thing -- the GreenPrint EverGreen font, which has been designed to use less space and ink while not sacrificing readability. Says the company, "Compared with common fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman and Helvetica, EverGreen reduces paper use by 15-20%." The EverGreen font costs $10 and works for PCs or Macs.

Businesses looking to save money on their printing expenses can also purchase enterprise editions of the software.

What are you waiting for? Give it a try today!

Home Deconstruction Basics

jchait — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:36:23 -0400

Deconstruction is one alternative to demolition and land filling. You can use deconstruction if you're remodeling part of a home, or tearing down an entire home. The focus of deconstruction is to salvage materials for reuse and recycle.

Think about it - if you bulldoze a home right over, you lose all possibility of reusing the home's material. Plus in some cases you can ruin something so much that it can't even be recycled anymore. If you deconstruct a home, you basically take it apart in reverse order of how it was built.

According to the Deconstruction Institute:

"Statistics show that the demolition of buildings in the United States produces 124,670,000 tons of debris each year. That’s enough to build a wall about 30 feet high and 30 feet thick around the entire coast of the continental United States (4,993 miles)."

The con is it takes more time (obviously). That said, there are many pros to home deconstruction.

You salvage fairly obvious items like sinks, fireplaces, windows, and also obscure items like joists, shingles, wood planks, and more. If it’s asbestos free and not drywall it can be reused.
You save money by reusing or selling items or you can donate the items to a cause. If you donate you can claim it on your taxes – which covers the cost of deconstruction which is a little more than plain old demolishing.
You’re conserving resources that would need to be remade new.
You’re keeping items out of landfills.

The Deconstruction Institute offers a handy calculator that figures out what the benefits of home deconstruction are for a home of your size. You enter in your home's square ft. and you get facts based on that size of a home.

save resources

Save Paper, Ink with Free Software

Home Deconstruction Basics