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Who says saving the world has to happen on your own time?

Meet the Green Team at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (www.theloanfund.org), a nonprofit that helps low-income people gain long-term economic stability: Its Green Team members have helped bring about a lot of changes at work, both big and small. Here are just a few of their recent victories:

* Employees recycle.

* They print on double-sided paper when possible

* The organization’s outside lighting is on a timer.

* Copiers shut down between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.

* Instead of bottled water, there are pitchers of water and glasses – Styrofoam and paper cups are history.

* Computers are programmed to go into power-saving mode when idle for more than 30 minutes.

* The organization purchased an energy-efficient water heater and an electric lawnmower

* Before employees buy something for the office, they’re likely to look around to see if there’s something they can reuse or repurpose.

* Agendas for staff meetings are projected onto a screen whenever possible, and handouts are emailed around instead of printed.

* Employees use conference calls and web conferencing whenever possible to save on travel.

We stopped by the office recently to interrogate the Green Team (which has been known, on occasion, to call itself “an environmental SWAT team in disguise”). Our goal was to pass its members wisdom on to you, dear readers, in the hopes that some of you might be inspired to start your own green groups at work. The team’s advice? Go for the low-hanging fruit first. Start small, making sure you involve everyone, and get management’s blessing up front. It’s all in the attitude and presentation, they say: Offer things up in a positive light, one green tip at a time. (Good advice, we say!)

Who are these amazing people, you ask? We’ll tell you: The Green Team members are Cydney Dodge, Chris Hoijer, James Key-Wallace, Joanne Piper Lang, Dawn Lieder and Patrick Pinkson-Burke.