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- Turn off your lights. Lights are the biggest killer of energy in the corporate world. Massive buildings like the Empire State Building have millions of lights and they leave them all on, all night. What a waste.
- When you go out of the office for lunch or to the toilet turn your lights off. This makes a huge difference. An average globe uses 60 watts in an hour. If you turn that light off for one hour a day you will save 22,000 watts of energy in a year. If 1000 people do it - we’re making a difference.
- Switch to compact fluorescent lamps. These bulbs are the spiral ones as opposed to the traditional round light bulb. Using one of these lasts as long as SIX traditional globes and saves up to 75% of the energy. They cost a bit more off the shelf but save heaps in long term costs.
- Change from Google to Blackle. Google has a white background. Most websites do. However, we spend a lot of time on Google. Most people have Google as their homepage. If Google made their homepage black instead of white it would save thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. Blackle is an alternative to Google. It is powered by Google so you get the same searches; it’s just black. Switch to this!
- Turn things off at the power point. At the end of the day we usually just turn things off at their console switch instead of reaching around and turning them off at the power point. Most people do not realize that a lot of power is wasted when you leave the power point on.
- Don’t throw out printer cartridges. The toner that you use in the printer shouldn’t get thrown out. Printer cartridges are designed to be refilled. Refilling them is cheaper than buying a new one. Every time a printer cartridge runs out they throw them in the box and then once a month get them refilled. This kind of system is going to save a firm a lot of money. Perhaps putting this idea to your boss could win you some brownie points!
- Catch the bus to work. There really is no advantage in driving to work unless you have to leave and come back during the day. The bus is cheaper and it is much better for the environment. Each car that you take off the road saves thousands of pounds of greenhouse gases ever year. By catching the bus you will be saving money and helping the Earth. It is a very humbling experience as you get to meet lots of people, see lots of things and get over the personal stigma of “only poor people catch the bus”. This is a mental trick we should all try to work with.
- Clean your Air Conditioner filter. Something you can do to save a lot of power is replace the filter (or clean it) to make sure that it is not struggling to operate and is running at peak efficiency.
- Turn your A/C down one degree. Every degree that you turn the air conditioner down saves a lot of energy. It really is amazing the amount of power you save if your a/c is set to 18 degrees instead of 16 degrees. In fact, if you set your a/c to three degrees higher you will save over 400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Remember, you don’t need to be frozen on hot days, you just need to make yourself comfortable.
- Make sure the work kitchen fridge is not leaking Fridges that leak air out the side because of poor seals waste a lot of energy. Be the one to glue it back on or if the job requires more attention submit an anonymous complaints saying that the fridge is a safety concern and needs to be fixed before the authorities are notified.
- Carry Your Lunch In A Lunchbox. Stop using paper or plastic bags that you wind up chucking at the end of your break and carry your sandwich in a lunchbox, instead.
- Don’t Print E-Mails. Only print out very important e-mails and save paper.
- Use Scrap Paper. Do you really need to write down a phone number on a brand new piece of 8″x12″? The envelope from today’s mail, the back of your Page-A-Day calendar or an old printed e-mail will work just fine.
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