When it comes to reducing man's impact on the world, businesses are often at the receiving end of a hefty dose of scepticism from the public: a recent survey by the Carbon Trust suggested that some 66 per cent of people question whether companies are honest when it comes to reporting the cuts in their carbon emissions.  Nevertheless, organisations of all sizes and across all industries are making an effort to green up their act. Bottles comprise at least 40 per cent recycled glass, while cosmetics giant L'Oreal boasts a carbon neutral, biomass-fuelled factory in Belgium. On the other side of the world, Chilean wine producer Cono Sur uses 1,000 free-roaming geese to eat insects and bugs around the vines of their Chimbarongo estate, removing the need for pesticides. Closer to home, Dogs Trust is currently building the world's most sustainable animal rehoming centre, which will feature a biomass boiler, under-floor heating, and rainwater recycling.  If wandering geese or canine rehoming don't dovetail with your company's business plan, there are still plenty of things you can do on Earth Day - and beyond - to make a difference. Perhaps the easiest measure is to cut down on paper use and move where possible towards paperless working.  "By putting in place simple and effective measures, such as only printing when it's essential and setting printers to print double sided, we've been able to drastically reduce our waste," says Helen Holland, CEO of communications consultancy The Reptile Group. The firm's paper consumption has fallen by 45 per cent, and a formal "end of day office exit procedure", where the last remaining staff member powers down all electrical equipment, has contributed to a 23 per cent drop in energy consumption.  Energy use is always an issue for companies, particularly where computers are concerned. To make them more efficient, you might consider a power management system. Some systems, such as 1E's NightWatchman and WakeUp solutions, will automatically switch machines off and on, removing the energy wastage associated with employees leaving their workstations running overnight. "Since the deployment of NightWatchman and WakeUp, we've seen a reduction of around 33 per cent in our energy costs," says Richard Barnes, associate and automation team leader of engineering firm arup. That's a reduction equivalent to the annual energy use of 40 homes. It's even possible to reduce your computer's power use while working. Free software such as granola (www.grano.la), launched on Earth Day last year, can regulate the activity of your CPU, effectively switching off your PC's engine while you're idle and reducing your energy use in the process.  Engines were very much at the forefront of Martin Whitmarsh's mind when aiming for the Carbon Trust Standard (created by the Carbon Trust as an objective way of assessing corporate carbon performance). as team principal for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team, he acknowledges that the sport is not perhaps the first thing people would think of when it comes to sustainability. "For many people outside the sport there was a surprise that a sports car manufacturer was tackling its emissions," he says.  However, by reducing use of their wind tunnel and using measuring and improving the efficiency of their truck drivers (among other things), the team became the first in F1 to achieve the standard, saving 1,400 tonnes of CO2 a year. While few other firms will need to be concerned with wind tunnels or the baffling speed of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, the team's efforts point to the fact that any company can reduce their environmental impact by focusing on efficient transport - whether that's car-pooling with fellow employees, using public transport for business travel, or encouraging people to cycle to work where possible, which will of course have added health benefits.  If staff need more incentive than losing a few pounds by getting on a bike, perhaps you could suggest they gain a few by signing up to a personal allowance carbon tracking scheme, like the one run by WSP Environment & Energy. Participants track their emissions against an annual allowance - those who emit less receive a financial reward, while those who exceed their limit pay into the fund. Organisations taking part include aviva, the Co-operative and Cisco. David Symons, director at WSP Environment & Energy, says the benefits are clear: "already we've seen that introducing personal carbon tracking can help firms engage with employees and deliver meaningful reductions in carbon emissions. Members who took part both in 2009 and 2010 cut their annual emissions by an average of 0.5 tonnes of CO2."  Whether it's through larger recycling bins or state-of-the-art cooling systems to make data centres more efficient, there are many ways companies can perform green acts. It can even mean working to