By James Stevenson, Urban Sustainability Educator, Pinellas County Extension

A one-woman campaign has been taking hold throughout the country. Tamara Krinsky has devised an elegantly simple campaign that should warm the heart of anyone trying to promote sustainable living: reduce the default margin setting on your word-processing program.

A 22 page, single-spaced document containing 9,500 words was reduced to a 17 page document, by changing from the default margin settings to 0.5” margins all around the page. That is a TWENTY PERCENT savings, which, in theory, means a 20% reduction in paper.

Watch Your Backside

Now, if that same document were printed 2-sided, only nine sheets of paper would be used, a further FIFTY percent savings.

To change the default settings of margins (PC version):
While in Word, go to File, Page Setup…, and chose Margins from the Margins, Paper or Layout tabs. Use the arrows next to the margin settings to reduce the default size to a size you are comfortable with. I find 0.5” all around to be just fine, but you can customize to suit your needs. Then you may select “Default” in the lower left pane of the window, and Word will ask if you are REALLY sure about making this decision. Click “Yes” and you are set! Now every time you go to create a new document, the margins will be as your new settings. Old documents, however, will not be changed automatically.

If you’d like to read more about Tamara’s campaign, visit: http://changethemargins.com/

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