Change the Margins

Refuse the Receipt

As ya'll know, I'm a big fan of changing things one small step at a time. Here's another great grassroots idea from my friend Jeffrey Abramson, who runs the Gen Art Film Festival...

REFUSE THE RECEIPT!!!

"Refuse the Receipt" . . . what an unbelievable amount of paper is wasted and sent to the landfill when stores automatically print out receipts. I'm sure that 99.9% of receipts printed immediately get tossed in the trash. People should have to request receipts (like they should have to request a bag). It's ridiculous that some stores have policies that if they do not just give you a receipt you will get something for free!

So I encourage people to tell store clerks to not print a receipt . . .and if they have to - then refuse to take it - let them watch the receipts pile up in their own trash and maybe they will start to realize what a problem it is!

OpenOffice - .79"

This just in from Nic Duquette, who saw one of the pieces on Margins out this week.

"OpenOffice.org comes with default margins of 0.79" on each side. I believe it's the very distant number-two office suite."

I have not tried OpenOffice.org yet (I've got my hands full dealing with the recent switch I made from PC to Mac!), so I can't advise on how well the software works. But given the software's progressive nature, it sounds like it's definitely worth checking it out for those of you undeclared software peeps.

Suggestions: Courts & IT Departments

Today we sent out our first "friends & family" e-mail blast about the Margins campaign. Even though the perfectionist inside me is screaming, "Wait!!! There's so much more information you need to add to this before it's ready to be seen by anyone but you", I'm trying to override those tendencies. If I waited til I thought it was perfect, there wouldn't be any forests left.

As I type this, 25 people have signed the Microsoft petition so far, and that's ridiculously exciting to me. And that's not just because I'm obsessed with lists! Whether people are signing the petition because they think it's a good idea, or just because they are my friends and feel obliged, Change the Margins is not just an idea rattling around in my head anymore. I'll take obliged...I'll take guilt...I'll take sincerity...I'll take whatever works!

Several people have also emailed me with suggestions about Change the Margins. As I receive tips and recommendations, I'll share them here in the blog. Please also feel free to use the Comments tool to post ideas, feedback, etc. I'd love to know what ideas people like (or don't), thoughts on how to accomplish the goals of the campaign, success stories such as getting your office to adopt different margin settings, potential partners for helping to spread the word, etc.

My father-in-law, a lawyer in Chicago, thought it would be good to target the Courts. According to him, most of them -- especially appellate courts -- have strict requirements about type size and margins in briefs.

Matt from Atlanta suggested the approach of having corporations' IT groups implement the changes. He said, "They'd save a ton of money and position themselves as green."