Instructables shows you how to build the Starship Enterprise out of office supplies. You’ll need 3 medium bull dog clips, 1 large bull dog clip, pens, 3 CDs, glue, tape and a marker.

Build the Starship Enterprise

Show someone you love them (in a non-sexual harassment way) by making them an origami flower out of post it notes

Origami Post It

Impress your colleagues, though not necessarily your boss, by doing magic with paperclips

Magic with Paperclips

Re-enact your favourite medieval battle scenes and invade a nearby desk using your very own office stationery trebuchet (i.e. catapult type thingy)

Office Supply Trebuchet

Pop some bubble wrap. And if you haven’t got any try the virtual alternative.

Virtual bubble wrap

We are all doing our bit for the environment, whether it’s recycling with the help our local councils as they provide coloured bins or off our own backs but what if we were forced to do it through the purchases we make?

Nowadays the vast majority of us recycle paper, throwing out the piles of newspapers, magazines and the countless junk mail we receive – but how many of us then go out and buy recycled paper?

If we put paper out to be recycled why don’t we buy paper that has been recycled, completing the cycle fully?

Recycled paper is now alot cheaper than ever and may cost just a few pence more than ’virgin’ or brand new paper so what if manufacturers decided to no longer produce cheap brand new paper and instead only offered us a version that was more environmentally friendly – maybe not totally 100% recycled but nonetheless ‘greener’?

I doubt many would notice the difference – especially as the idea of cheap copier paper is to print non important work at home and at work for internal documents for filing etc.

If you look at the cheap 5 Star range of copier paper – the descriptions are virtually the same:

5 Star Office Value Copier Paper Multifunctional 80gsm 500 Sheets per Ream A4 White [1 Ream]

And

5 Star Office Copier Paper Multifunctional 80gsm 500 Sheets per Ream A4 White [1 Ream]

Yet the second one, which costs around 50p more is manufactured using FSC pulp from mixed sources.

The second idea is to tax virgin paper increasing the price. Maybe slightly more complicated (!) to implement but I’m sure this would have an effect on the price conscious consumer.

If virgin paper was £1.50 - £3.00 more than the recycled paper would that change a consumer’s habit?

If you currently changed from virgin paper to recycled paper for home or office – how are you finding it? How would you feel if you were faced with just one option when it came to budget copier paper which was recycled or at least more ‘greener’ paper?

Whistle Ink is one of the leading and largest office supplies product information sites that give extra value information about office products before customers buy.

Eco Label

EU Eco Label:

At least 10% of virgin wood fibres should come from

certified sustainably managed forests.

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The Blauer Engel (Blue Angel)

German Blue Angel:

For recycled paper to qualify for the mark, it must be made of 100% “waste paper” (tolerance 5%), and contain at least 65% low-grade or medium-grade scrap and waste papers. Waste paper is defined as papers and boards obtained as a result of use or processing. Only the Blue Angel eco-label refers directly to recycled content.

It is one of the world’s first environmental accreditation programmes and is internationally recognised.

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Nordic Swan Label

Nordic Swan

The criterion for this is on the environmental effects of the manufacturing paper of recycled copier paper rather than on how the raw paper materials are selected. E.g. post consumer waste, sustainable forests.

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FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)

One symbol you may see often for recycled paper products.

To achieve FSC Recycled certification the paper mill must meet strict guidelines particularly regarding the traceability of the recycled fibre.

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Some office papers that have a range of recycled content:

• The 5 Star Multifunction Copier Paper is manufactured using FSC pulp from mixed sources. This one could say is better than buying 100% virgin paper.

• Canon Multifunctional Paper Recycled 80gsm 500 Sheets per Ream A4 Paper White Ref 81140 [1 Ream] This is probably the best paper at the best price point for everyday use. Made in Europe from 100% post consumer waste, Canon Recycled Copier Paper has the highest environment accreditations: Nordic Swan and Blue Angel.

• Evolve Office Recycled Copier Paper Multifunctional 80gsm 500 Sheets per Ream A4 White Ref 70478 [1 Ream]- High quality multipurpose recycled paper made from 100% reclaimed material

For more information about Recycled Paper and to download a PDF booklet on procuring office paper with recycled content click here

See the range of recycled office copier papers today at Whistle Ink

OK, so they’re not pinching handbags or robbing banks but according to a survey by Fish4Jobs, minor theft of stationery costs small businesses some £831M every year – and average of nearly £45 for every employee.

The interesting thing is 78% of office workers admit to having stolen stationery from the office. Have a look around you. If you can see 3 other people, then they’re all thieves! (Because you’d never do that would you?)

So, short of bringing in the coppers, what can small businesses do? Well the reason most frequently cited for why this kind of theft was OK was the fact that employees had to incur minor expenses like using personal mobiles for business calls.

Company mobiles all round then?

Perhaps not.

It’s possible that when you even think about recycled copier paper you see the price and think ‘no way - I can get two reams of new paper compared to the price of one ream of receycled copier paper‘.

Right?

I guess it’s one of those personal decisions you have to weigh up. I can only assume that it must cost more somewhere in the chain for it to be priced so high.

The price of recycled copier and recycled laser paper isn’t just down to the retailer or the place where you buy the paper from but probably beyond the wholesaler.

We currently buy the 5 Star Multifunction Copier Paper for £2.03 exc vat and the cheapest really recycled paper - made from post consumer waste - is the Canon Multifunctional Paper Recycled 80gsm Ref 81140 which we buy at £2.58.

That’s a reasonable price? Yeah sure. Maybe it just deoends on how much you but but still why does it have to be more expensive?

Evolve Office Copier Paper Multifunctional 80gsm Ref 70478 is another high quality multipurpose copier paper made from 100% reclaimed material costs us £3.14 exc vat.

When every penny counts what would you choose? Or does it not matter all - it’s recycled paper all the way?

Click to read more about recycled office copier

What’s your customer service like?

I was reading an article on BBC Online this morning and it was basically discussing the ‘customer service’ in the NHS and the level of service you would expect to receive in say a shop, a retail environment.

I have to say there’s a couple of receptionist at the surgery I use and on the last visit I can confirm there was no smile behind the desk - must have been along day. (The nurse was smiley and friendly).

A good all round service is not just say delivering good quality office supplies, but it’s also in how it’s delivered.

With a retail shop if we are not happy with the customer service we can always take our money elsewhere, but with your NHS outlet we are kind of well stuck.

Maybe seeing customers day in day out with all sorts of problems can take bears heavy on the rising ends of the smile! maybe it simply down to the wrong person in the job?

‘The old cliche of the retail sector “the customer is king” perhaps has a resonance for modern health care.’

Do you work with a receptionist that doesn’t smile? Are you a receptionist that does smile?

You can read the article here

Maybe they should have just stuck to email but maybe that would have eventually got out too.

The ‘London Gatwick Ground Staff’ created a Facebook page writing about their customers. Apparently the British Airways customers were described as ‘chavs’ and had a big dislike for customers who kept their boarding pass in their mouths before handing it to staff.

I have to agree with that one really – it’s a bit disgusting.

I’m sure every office gets customers or suppliers and other staff who they have ‘an issue’ with for whatever reason and we (yes it happens everywhere) and they talk about it with their colleagues or even at home – but to go to the lengths that they did to post it?

You can read the story here

As you know this follows the news that Virgin sacked 13 of their staff for referring to them as ‘chavs’ and making ‘jokes’ about the engine.

Other comments joked that planes were full of cockroaches and claimed the airline’s jet engines were replaced four times in one year.

I’m sure if I was in there shoes and saw cockroaches I would like inform my line manager or something?!?!

Have you ever talked about someone in the office or a customer and someone has found out? Tell us the story (completely anonymous of course!)

Yes I know first your lighting and then now I am talking about your screen! It’s amazing how these little things that we don’t really think about (because we are working our backside off!) make a difference to our performance.

It’s almost like saying you can’t write unless you have a really expensive set of gel pens or you really do need that post-it note dispenser!

Anyway, according to the TUC’s biennial survey of safety reps, ‘Stress or overwork, injuries and illnesses caused by the poor use of display screen equipment and repetitive strain injuries (RSI) top the list of workers’ safety concerns’

‘Injuries and illnesses resulting from the poor use of display screen equipment has risen from fourth in 2006 to become the second-most common concern, reported by two in five (41 per cent) safety reps. Repetitive strain injuries (40 per cent) are another commonly reported hazard.’

And all this just adds to the stress at work.

Have a look at the original article here for some concerning results about office workers concerned!

And while we are at it there is some very useful information / free leaflets about office health and safety over at the Health & Safety Executive website.

It’s definitely work a look and maybe pass it around or print the leaflets out and make them available to everyone in the office.

What measures have you taken in your office to make it a better and safer working environment? Let us know.

Have you ever thought about the lighting in your office?

The ones in our office are kind of yellowy rather than bright ‘white’.

But while it’s on above your head all day it does make a difference to your alertness according to Research carried out at the Surrey Sleep Centre at the University of Surrey in partnership with Philips Lighting.

They have revealed ‘that changing traditional white-light lighting to blue-enriched white light helped office workers stay more alert and less sleepy during the day.’

I sometimes feel sleepy after having lunch….

You can read more about this interesting story here

While I can’t help you with big lighting jobs I can direct you to our low energy light bulbs, fluorescent tubes and the standard tungsten light bulbs.

What do you make of the lighting in your office? Leave your comments below.

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