Here are a few tips on how to go green with your home and office technology.

Provide Green Backup--Keeping files backed up on a USB flash drive has become a standard practice. Traditionally, many drives feature plastic, metal or leather accents. Now, however, bamboo, a renewable resource and the fastest-growing plant on Earth, can help protect your removable drive. In engineering tests, the tensile strength of bamboo is higher than several alloys of steel, making the Bamboo Flash Drive a simple, sturdy solution for green digital file storage.

Save Your Power--An Eco Surge Protector conserves energy and saves you money at the same time. A master outlet lets one device be plugged into the surge protector and have unidirectional control over the rest. That means when the device plugged in to the master outlet shuts down or idles, the additional devices are also shut off to reduce energy waste.

Dual-Purpose Resources--Instead of using electronic calculators for your finance needs, use the power of the sun or your overhead lights. Solar calculators are a simple way to make the most of the resources you use every day. Using overhead light to power your calculator uses less energy than an electronic calculator and entails less waste than a battery-powered version.

Know an "Ink-ling" About Recycling--Printer cartridges have special recycling requirements. Stores such as Staples make it simple to recycle these products through ink and toner recycling programs. In fact, the store even offers money back in Staples Rewards.

Print In Green--Find a printer with an ENERGY STAR rating that uses energy-efficient technologies. Printers, for example, provide environmentally responsible printing solutions, including power-saving settings and automatic double-sided printing. Plus, with every purchase from this line, Staples will make a donation to Carbonfund.org to offset the average energy consumed over three years of product use.

By using greener technology, you can reduce the amount of energy needed to keep your home and business running--saving you green while keeping you green.

Learn More

For more information on simple ways to go green, visit a Staples store or www.staples.com/ecoeasy.

Helping the ecology and your own economy may be easier than you think.