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A message from Glenn A. Grant, acting administrative director of the courts.

In my last column, I discussed how the Judiciary has implemented “Pay Stub on the Web,” an initiative that enables us to save money and preserve natural resources by allowing employees to access their paystubs online instead of having someone deliver a paper copy.

This is just one aspect of the Judiciary’s effort to “going green.”

Like many businesses and organizations, we have implemented a program to recycle paper, cans and bottles, ever mindful that waste deposited in landfills translates into higher disposal costs.

But we also recognize that reducing what we use is preferable to increasing our use of recycling. Using less and reusing it will always be more green than using something and recycling it. 

In this regard, we have begun to identify other ways to help us reduce the costs, but, more importantly, reduce energy and preserve our environment.  Some of the ways are as follows:

• We can reduce our use of plain white paper by 25 percent over the next year, and if we use copiers and printers that are capable of two-sided printing, we could conceivably reduce the amount of paper use by nearly half.
• We can eliminate purchasing yellow writing pads as believe it or not; they have a higher cost over white paper writing pads.
• We can save on electricity costs if staff turns off computers, monitors and printers at the end of the workday.
• We can reuse office supplies such as paper clips, rubber bands, and binders.
• We also can discourage printing out e-mails and limiting hard copy distribution of internal reports and other publications.  A good example of the latter is JT Briefing, which is published exclusively online.

Many of these ideas came from Judiciary staff. While they may seem insignificant, we believe that no suggestion to save money and conserve resources should be disregarded in these tough economic times.

The Judiciary will continue to explore ways to cut costs and create efficiencies while working toward a more environmentally-friendly workplace.