As we head into the winter months – peak energy usage months – the ODNR Energy Strategy Team asks you to begin conserving energy towards our goal of a 5% consumption reduction in fiscal year 08. Below are some easy conservation ideas that could have a large impact on DNR’s consumption of energy and natural resources.
Lights:
Turn off your lights every time you leave your office.
Turn off the bathroom light when leaving if it is otherwise unoccupied.
Remove fluorescent tubes from your light fixtures. (Contact facilities to do it.)
- 1 fluorescent bulb per fixture will often suffice in common areas and halls. 2 or 3 over your workspace and 1 or 2 in other office areas will provide plenty of light.
- Dust the plastic cover under the fixture for brighter light.
Heating and Cooling:
Move your thermostat 1-2 degrees higher for AC and lower for heating.
During the heating season (late fall and winter) keep draperies and shades that are on south facing windows open during the day to allow sunlight to enter and closed at night to reduce the cold radiating from the windows.
Electronics/Computer:
Set your computer’s energy use settings in the control panel, to turn off your monitor and hard drive when your computer is inactive.
Shut down your computer completely when you leave the office.
Turn off local printers, speakers or other devices when you leave your office.
- Attach all these devices to a single power strip and turn it off when you leave the office to insure that no “ghost power” is being drained by any of these devices.
- Leave local printers off, and only turn them on when you need to print.
Shut down networked printers and fax machines when you leave at night.
Paper and supplies:
Email documents to colleagues and don’t print unless a hard copy is absolutely essential.
Program printers to print double sided by default.
- Re-load your junk faxes into your fax machine to print on the unused side.
Remove yourself from catalogues and other unwanted mailings. Just call the company.
Use refillable pens, pencils and markers. Disposables aren’t recyclable or biodegradable.
Recycling:
R
educe! Reuse! Recycle!
- Producing paper, glass, and metal products from recycled instead of virgin materials conserves energy and reduces pollution (including C02) by 70 to 90%
Familiarize yourself with what we recycle at fountain square to make sue you are recycling all that you can.
Food and Beverages:
Use a ceramic mug for your coffee and a sturdy reusable water bottle for water.
- Styrofoam cups last 9 generations in a landfill. Used paper cups are also not recyclable.
- Plastic water bottles require massive amounts of petroleum and the vast majority also ends up in landfills.
Keep other reusable plates and silverware to cut down even more on your plastic and paper use.
Bringing lunch/leftovers in a reusable container uses much less throwaway packaging than individually packaged lunches.
Bring reusable canvass bags to the grocery store. When you do get plastic bags, you can recycle them at most grocery stores in Columbus.
Manage your coffee pot! Make sure to turn it off when you aren’t drinking hot coffee.
Transportation:
Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Taking the stairs can burn or keep off over one pound of fat each year.
Walk or bike to work if you are close enough to do it.
Car-pool to work and to meetings, conferences and workshops whenever possible.
Fill up you flex-fuel vehicle with E85 gasoline.
Do not idle any vehicle longer then necessary.
- Two minutes of idling uses as much fuel as driving one mile.
- Avoid drive-thrus. Even if you are ordering to go, you will save gas (and often time) by parking and going inside to get your food.