Going green seems to be all the rage right now, which is a great thing!

It seems like everyday I hear of a large company jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon, or at least appearing to do so. The inspiration for this hub came to me when I recently saw a Walmart commercial boasting budget friendly prices and environmentally friendly products. I decided to do a little more digging and discovered that Walmart actually opened it's first eco-friendly store this past January in Romeoville. This store is the first of a pilot group, but supposedly catches excess heat from refrigeration units and reuses it, reduces greenhouse gas emission, uses motion sensors that turn on lights only when shoppers walk by, has doors in the meat and dairy section instead of open shelves and utilizes skylights that reduce electricity demand.

Walmart is not the only large retailer testing these revolutionary ideas. Companies like J.C. Penny, Kohl's, Macy's and Best Buy have also opened eco-friendly stores with organic paint, recycled carpet and solar panels.

While it's great that the big guys and their big budgets are beginning to set an example for businesses everywhere, not all of us can afford to rebuild our stores or donate large sums of money to charities around the world. So what can we, the small business owners do to reduce our impact on the planet?

Here are 10 simple, easy-to-implement ideas that small businesses can start doing today.

1. Print business cards and/or letterhead on recycled paper
2. Turn off lights in rooms that aren't in use (server room, kitchen, bathrooms, empty offices, etc.)
3. Recycle scratch paper
4. Purchase recyclable paper products for your kitchen
5. Encourage employees to store files electronically. Eliminate paper files and cut space demands!
6. Reward employees who carpool/bike to the office
7. Organize a beach/park cleanup day and create a sense of teamwork
8. Purchase as much as possible from local vendors, this will reduce gas for traveling and/or shipping
9. Sign up for a computer recycling program
10. Encourage customers to do business online which reduces unecessary paperwork