Variable Software™ is taking steps to promote environmental conservation, beginning with our employees and operations.

• Our website

  • We use a black background because black is shown to use considerably less energy than other colors on some computer monitors. (See the report [PDF].) If you don't like the default color scheme, you can select a different one here
    
    
  • You also don't need to worry about wasting ink when you print our web pages. To view how our pages print without wasting paper, use the Print Preview option in your browser. The end result is black text with a blank background, and the content will be formatted slightly differently in order for it to fit on a standard piece of paper. This allows us to display more information on the web page, yet increase the readability of the printed section.
    
    
  • Our website is hosted by a shared hosting company in order to minimize the amount of energy consumed after business hours. A dedicated web server hosting a single website is not very friendly to the environment.
  
  

• Our operations

  • Variable Software™'s employees are encouraged to work from a home-based office. This not only decreases our costs, it also decreases the energy needed to heat/air condition another building, a company refrigerator, and always-on security lights. This also reduces pollutants that would otherwise be generated by employees driving to a corporate office.
  
  

• Our employees

  • We encourage our employees to recycle everything their local community allows, including paper, plastic, aluminum, steel, and other reusable materials.
    
    
  • We also provide reimbursement for the purchase of reuseable, Earth-friendly shopping bags. This provides an extra incentive for our employees to skip "Paper or plastic," as there are no initial investments, and local stores give credit for each reuseable bag used.
    
    
  • Variable Software™ also promotes the use of alternatives to standard lighting. Compact Fluroescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) and lights based on Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are encouraged. CFLs are great alternatives to standard incandescent bulbs. See how much you would save by switching to CFLs at CalcEnstein.