1. It’s going to be a bright, bright sunshiny day!
Artificial lighting accounts for 44% of the electrical use in office buildings.
Here are some tips to bring your internal lighting usage down:
- Reduce the amount of artificial light you use.
- Use natural light whenever possible.
- Turn off the lights if you are going to leave the room for more than 15 minutes
- Create an office-wide policy of using only Energy-Star rated bulbs and fixtures
- Use timers and motion sensors to turn off lights when not in use.
2. Maximize your computer efficiency
Business sector computers waste nearly $1 billion dollars a year in electricity!
- Turn off your computer at the end of each day
- During the day setting your computer to “Sleep Mode” can reduce electricity consumption by up to 70%. Note: Screen Savers do not save energy
- Make it a point to purchase hardware with an Energy-Star rating.
- Extend the life of your computers by adding a new hard-drive or upgrading the RAM
- When you simply must replace a PC, do so by donating it to a local charitable organization for reuse.
3. Print Smarter
Overusing printing wastes paper, ink, printer life and increases manufacturing output. Some simple ways to print smarter include:
- Print double-sided
- Only print the things that need to be on paper
- Make it a policy to buy chlorine-free paper with a higher percentage of post-consumer recycled content
- Consider switching to a lighter stock of paper or alternatives made from bamboo, hemp, organic cotton, or kenaf.
- Recycle toner and ink cartridges and buy re-manufactured ones. According to Office Depot, each re-manufactured toner cartridge “keeps approximately 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic out of landfills…and conserves about a half gallon of oil.”