Going green at work has been a slow-going process for me. At home, I have built a composter, installed a rain barrel, banished incandescent light bulbs, started using organic lawn fertilizer, and began recycling almost everything I can (reducing our trash by about 50 percent). At work, though, going green is a journey taken in baby steps. 
One idea I had not considered is the positive environmental impact of direct deposit. That's right, direct deposit. According to a recent study by the PayItGreenAlliance, the elimination of every paper check will yield a real environmental impact. It claims that each employee switching to direct deposit will:
- Save one pound of paper.
- Eliminate the release of four gallons of wastewater.
- Eliminate the release of one pound of greenhouse gases (equivalent to: not driving four miles and half a square food of forest preserved for 10 years).
- Save a business $176.55.
If every employee with access to direct deposit began using it, the country would:
- Save 11,082,971 pounds of paper.
- Avoid the release of 105,709,380 gallons of wastewater.
- Save 4,105,889 gallons of gas.
- Avoid the release of 31,581,675 pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Equivalent to: 112,329,703 miles not driven; 1,345,379 trees planted (and grown for 10 years) and 13,756,978 square feet of forest preserved.
These stats further prove that small changes by all of us can have a real impact on the environment, as well as help the bottom line.
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