Results of a North American survey released by Xerox Corporation to measure environmental consciousness in the workplace, found that work colleagues may have some strong objections to those who don’t walk-the-green-talk at the office.

Almost 40 percent of U.S. respondents said their number one office environmental pet peeve was mindless printing resulting in abandoned pages at the printer, followed closely by leaving the lights on in unused offices (37 percent).

The survey, which polled 1,569 office workers across the U.S. and Canada, revealed that U.S. women (91 percent) consider themselves more eco-conscious than their male counterparts (86 percent). Age had a noticeable effect on environmental consciousness too.  Of U.S. workers aged 18-34, 27 percent ranked themselves as “extremely” or “very green” versus the next generation of employees aged 35-44 (17 percent).

The top ten environmental pet peeves among U.S. office workers:

1. Mindless printing resulting in increased waste (40%)

2. Leaving lights on (37%)

3. Lack of recycling bins (33%)

4. Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter (29%)

5. Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc. (27%)

6. Coworkers not recycling (27%)

7. Coworkers not printing double-sided when they can (24%)

8. Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing (24%)

9. Having to store paper copies of existing, electronic files (24%)

10. Leaving computer on and not powering down when going home (23%)

For ways to ‘green’ an office of any size, visit www.xerox.com/environment.