There is a company right here in Minnesota (ecoEnvelopes) which has received the okey doke from the US Postal service to bring to market a re-usable envelope.

So what, you ask? Consider all of the junk mail you still cannot rid of despite your best efforts. How many of them contain a 2nd envelope inside? The folks at ecoEnvelope figure that use of their product could save «an estimated cost of 1 billion pounds in greenhouse gas emissions and more than 71 trillion BTUs of energy» across the 81 billion return envelopes mailed annually. Not to mention the savings in trees, processing water, fuel saved by having less cargo on board and finally happier mail delivery personnel.

So how do they convince the many, many companies with mailers to adopt this product? Well, besides promoting a greener front, they also recognize actual dollar savings. Yes, real money is saved by using fewer resources, less printing, and the lighter shipping weight.

Via :: Unusual Business Ideas That Work

Writing faster web pages is great for your users, which in turn is great for you and your company. But it's better for everyone else on the planet, too.

An excellent example of how careful and considerate work in the design of a website has ripple effects across the user experience, CO2 savings, the web host's bottom line in terms of electrical bills, and ease of maintenance for the developers and administrators.

Steve (creator of YSlow) uses Wikipedia to illustrate how much energy they could save by adopting some best practices with some pretty convincing results.

Via: Ajaxian