Turn It Off for the Holiday – and Every Day

12/18/14

 With the Holidays around the corner, it’s a good time to be mindful of how you can save energy in your office, even when you’re not there.  It’s easy, helps Ithaca College save energy and money, and gets us closer to our commitment of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.  Here’s what we all can do.

• Turn off the lights any time that you leave – for a meeting or class, at the end of the day, before the weekend, and before a long holiday.
• Turn off all electronic devices  - including computers, monitors, scanners, printers, copiers - at the end of each work day.   And turn on equipment only  as needed.
• Unplug your chargers when your electronic devices are not charging.  Plug in electronic chargers only for the length of time required to charge your devices, and then then unplug the chargers from the electrical receptacle.  
• Turn off your computer – including the monitor - when it’s not in use.  The monitor consumes over half of the energy used by the average computer.  If your computer and monitor are plugged into a power strip, turn the power off directly at the power strip.  And set your computer's Power Options to put your computer and monitor in “sleep mode" after 5 minutes of inactivity and to turn off (“hibernate”) after 10 minutes of inactivity.
• Make sure that windows in your office or room are closed (you didn't have them open anyway, did you?) before you leave!  

 Why put so much emphasis on turning off computers? On average, leaving on your computer every night and on weekends places 3 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year. To reach our commitment of carbon neutrality, we must all work together to turn off equipment when it’s not needed.

Thank you, and have a very Happy Holiday!

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