By following some simple tips, you can conserve natural energy resources, protect our environment and pocket savings for your business.

Energy Efficiency

• Turn off lights and unplug electronics after hours — computers and other electronics use energy while they're plugged in, even when they're switched off. (Plug all your appliances into a power strip and you'll only have to flip one switch at the end of the day.)
• Set computers to sleep and hibernate when inactive, and lose the screen savers. Flying toasters and slideshows can use up about $50 of electricity in a year. Look for power management or energy-saving features on the control panel for Windows, or system preferences under the apple menu for Macs.
• Use ENERGY STAR® office equipment — most major brands carry energy-saving models marked with the ENERGY STAR® label.
• Keep your exterior and freight doors closed as much as possible.
• Consider having employees use laptop computers since they use up to 90% less energy than a standard computer.
• If it works for your business, consider ink-jet printers, which use less energy than laser printers.

Air Conditioning/Heating

• You can easily save energy in the winter by setting the thermostat to 68 degrees when your business is open, and lowering it when your business is closed. In the summer, you can follow the same strategy with central air conditioning by keeping your office warmer than normal when you are away, and lowering the thermostat setting to 78 degrees when you are at the office.
• Use a programmable thermostat and make it easy to adjust the settings as well as regulate the temperature when you are closed to avoid unnecessary heating costs. Consider a locking cover over the thermostat to avoid having employees change temperature settings.
• Service your HVAC system yearly (or as specified by the manufacturer) to ensure it's running efficiently.

Lighting

• Replace your high-use incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). CFLs use up to 75% less electricity to produce the same amount of light as an incandescent bulb.
• Change out incandescent or fluorescent exit signs with LED exit signs.
• Install occupancy sensors. These inexpensive devices can reduce lighting costs by up to 40 percent by turning off lights in unoccupied areas.
• Compare different types of retrofit or fixture replacement strategies and the effects they could have on your energy usage with our easy-to-use Lighting Replacement Saving Calculator. Calculate your energy savings today!

Reduce Waste

• Set up a recycling system for paper. The average office tosses out about 350 pounds of paper per employee, per year.
• Make sure your kitchen has recycling bins for cans and bottles.
• Try using onscreen PDFs to view documents instead of printing, this will also save energy.
• If your business uses direct deposit, offer your employees a paperless pay stub option.

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