There are many benefits to running an online business, and one of the most important benefits is the environmental ones. It's becoming increasingly clear that we need to be paying close attention to how our actions affect the environment. Choosing to work from home can have a positive effect on the environment. You can be making money with your computer and going green at the same time. Sounds good, right?



One of the biggest environmental benefits of starting a home business is obvious. You will significantly cut down the amount of pollution that you are creating by avoiding the daily commute to work. Instead of spending a half hour or more in your car helping to exhaust the world's supply of limited oil and contributing to greenhouse gasses, you'll head from your breakfast table to your home office in your slippers if you want to.

While the savings in pollution may be one of the biggest environmental benefits, running a home business gives you the flexibility to make many other choices that affect the environment.

Your office supplies ? When you work in a company office, the supplies bought are done so with little thought to the environment. In your home office you can choose pencils made with wood from sustainable forests. You can choose the best recycled printer paper that you can afford.

Your clothing ? When you work in an office, you understandably need to dress professionally and often need to have a large, varied wardrobe. When you work from home you can buy a few organic cotton t-shirts and jeans to work in and have an eco-friendly work wardrobe.

Your lighting, heating and cooling - Offices are large energy hogs. People who work in a cubicle can't turn off the lights when they are going to be gone from their cubicle. Not too many workers would be happy with the office manager keeping the heat down and telling employees to wear an extra sweater. When you have a home business you can use CFL bulbs in your lighting and turn the lighting off whenever you're not using it. You can adjust the thermostat to save energy and choose to put on another sweater if it's chilly or wear a tank top if it's warm. You are in control of these things that affect the environment.

Your food choices ? This may seem like a stretch, but really its not. People who work in an office tend to go out to lunch or order lunch in. It's not very easy to eat an environmentally friendly diet with organics or local foods that way. But when you work from home, you can eat eco-friendly foods without a problem. Don't forget the coffee choices, too. You can brew organic, fair trade coffee at home for a more environmentally friendly coffee break instead of having to accept the cheap coffee at work.

When you add all the little environmentally friendly choices that you are able to make with your own home business to the big environmental savings you'll get from giving up the commute, it's easy to see how working from home not only benefits you; it benefits the environment.