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Go green and beat the back-to-work-blues

By now, most of us have had our summer break. So it's a good time to make plans for saving energy (and of course money) as working life resumes in earnest.

Drive smart, and save money

Share a car and cut your costs

Take a spin on your cycle

Hold meetings online rather than in offices

Turn off your PC and monitor

Use less paper

Stop junk mail at home

Dress to impress - for less!

Drive smart, and save money

If you commute by car, then read our tips on smarter driving, which could save 15% of your fuel costs. Use them every time you get in the car and you could save £200-250 a year. (Based on a yearly mileage of 12,000 miles a year.)

Read our tips on smarter driving

Share a car and cut your costs

See if you can organise a car-sharing arrangement with your colleagues. After all, it doesn't cost much more to run a car with four people inside rather than just a driver. And all of you would make big savings on your fuel costs.

If you don't live near any of your colleagues, see if you can find a local car-sharing scheme.

Find a local car-sharing scheme

Take a spin on your cycle

With roads becoming ever more clogged, why not get on your bike? It's great exercise and will help cut your fuel bills. If your skills are a bit rusty, or you just want to boost your confidence, there are cycling training courses for adults all over the UK.

Find a cycling training course near you

Hold meetings online rather than in offices

If your company has several different offices, think about using video conferencing facilities instead of sending staff to meet in face to face. If your company can't justify the expense of a packaged video conferencing suite, think about using the free Apple iChat or Microsoft NetMeeting web conferencing software. Your IT team (or an IT contractor) should be able to set it up easily.

Turn off your monitor, PC and printers

If you work on a computer, turn your monitor off when you go to a meeting or for lunch. Always turn off your PC and monitor at the end of the working day, and don't be tempted to leave either of them in standby or sleep mode.

You can also buy timers to control your office printers and office lights so that they're not using energy when they're not being used.

Use less paper

Cut down on the paper you use at work. Try changing the print options so that you can print two pages of a document on one side of paper, and make sure you're printing on both sides of the paper. And in meetings you can always ask people to share printed documents.

Reading and storing documents on your PC (rather than printing them) will also save paper, energy and resources. Your company-wide archives can also be maintained electronically rather than on paper.