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Monday: Shut Down Computers
According to a McKinsey report, standby power alone accounts for 6 percent to 8 percent of the total energy consumed by a computer. Instead of leaving computers and printers in “sleep” or “standby” modes when leaving at the end of the work day, Ecos employees made the effort to completely shut down all computers and printers. This simple action saved 62.16 kWh.
Tuesday: Heaters Off
The Portland corporate offices are located in an historic downtown building. Although we were not able to control the central heat (which is controlled by the building management), employees refrained from turning on auxiliary heating units, which is sometimes necessary on chilly and damp Northwest spring days. By wearing sweaters to work, this simple action saved 76.28 kWh.
Wednesday: No Printing
Today’s technology and software allows many documents to be read, edited, saved, scanned and e-mailed without printing. All of Ecos’ offices made an effort curb printing unless absolutely necessary, saving not only paper but toner and energy as well (although we did not completely shut off printers, many went into lower-energy sleep modes from inactivity). This simple action reduced paper use by 55%.
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Thursday: Compost Food Waste
When the Green Team conducted its “garbage study” of the Portland office last year, it found that about 50% of the waste in trash cans was made up of compostable food items. For Earth Day activities, the Green Team supplied bins for employees to collect all compostable food scraps. This effort prevented 21.21 lbs of food from ending up in landfills, which instead was distributed to employees who compost at home.
Friday: Let’s Do it All Again!
Ecos employees closed the week with a grand finale of all the savings measures we tried this week. So on Friday we shut down our computers, turned off the heat, refrained from printing and composted food — and on top of that, branch offices turned off all ambient lighting, resulting in an additional 34.259 kWh saved. |
