The average America produces 56 tons of trash per year. Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. With landfills overflowing and many species of wildlife in danger of losing their habitats, learning to live “green” is everyone’s responsibility.

In the hustle and bustle of every day life, however, making the necessary changes to “go green” can become another thing “to do,” another activity to add to an already overloaded schedule. It can seem downright burdensome when environmental groups are asking you to rip all the carpet out of your house, make your home super-energy efficient, and buy organic cotton mattresses at $3,000 apiece.

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My experiences are with the Microsoft Dynamics GP and Visual ERP systems, so I will specifically deal with examples in those systems. Although Visual is more specifically designed for manufacturers (to the point where many of the non-manufacturing functions are really weak in the product) it is inherently designed around a philosophy of Manufacturing that is sometimes called “Batch and Queue.” In this area I feel Dynamics GP is far superior to Visual as it supports both Batch and Queue as well as the more modern Lean approach.

Lean Manufacturing is a manufacturing philosophy that originally started as Toyota Production System and has more or less been perfected there (as much as a system that was designed by perfectionists can be). Lean is conceptually about removing all waste from any manufacturing or operational process. Think of waste as having a half life — you can remove half of it at a go but there will always be some left behind. Since waste is defined as any activity or action that adds no value to the production of a product, there is a lot of waste going on in an office environment that can technically never be completely eliminated.

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In these times of economic uncertainty, climate change, and the rising prices of energy and goods, more and more individuals, households and businesses are looking for ways in which to save energy and by doing so, to save money.

Now, thanks to the inventions of many engineers and designers, there are all kinds of energy saving, eco-friendly products that can be used in the house and garden. Take wind-up or dynamo radios, torches and flash-lights for example. These have been available for some time now but they continue to be improved and developed to deliver more output for less input. They are more energy efficient than every before and the ranges include lamps for all kinds of outdoor activity and location, or emergency lighting for the home and office.

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