Typical energy usage rates
Printer ~ 4.0 watts
Stereo/Receiver ~4.0 watts
Battery Charger ~2.5 watts
TV ~1.5 watts
Desktop Computer ~2.5 watts
Laptop Computer ~0.5 watts
Monitor ~1.5 watts
DVD Player ~0.5 watts
Computers
Turn off your computer when leaving the office at night.
Use any power-saving modes available
- On Windows 7, go to Control Panel → System and Security → Power Options, and choose Energy Saver
- Set for your computer to go to sleep when not touched after a certain time frame. Your computer can be very quickly woken up when you need to use it again.
Sleep your computer when not in use. Don’t use screen savers. They do not save much energy because they generally keep the CPU operating. If you need the CPU running (running some modeling for example), then just turn the screen off.
Reduce your computer monitor’s brightness from 100% to 70% saves up to 20% of the monitor’s energy consumption. It can be better for your eyes too.
For more environmentally sound tips check out the Computer Labs and Servers section.
Emails
Each email sent emits 4g of CO2 to the atmosphere and if the email includes an attachment it emits another 50g of CO2 or more.
Reference: Mike Berners-Lee: ‘ How Bad are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything’ (2010)
Unsubscribe from unwanted mailing lists
Unattach attachments in email chains
Video Conferencing
An hour of videoconferencing or streaming, emits 150-1,000 g of carbon dioxide. Compare this to a gallon of gasoline burned from a car emits = 8,887 g) and requires 2-12 L of water.
leaving camera off during web call can reduce these footprints by 96%
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210114134033.htm
How much data is consumed?
Your data needs to travel through many layers, servers, wires etc. All of which consume electricity. It depends on the qualityy oof the videoo, the number of people on you call (wiith video), the number of participants visible on your screen, and oof course, if your on camera is on or off.
How do various video meeting platforms compare?
Zoom
One-on-one call
- Standard Quality = 540MB/hr
- 720p = 1.08GB/hr
- 1080p = 1.62GB/hr
Group call
- Standard Quality = 810MB/hr
- 720p = 1.35GB/hr
- 1080p = 2.4GB/hr
Mobile
- Zoom optimizes for bandwidth, so will use less data
Google Meet
Group call
- High Quality = 3.2MB/hr/participant inbound, 1.8MB/hr/participant outbound = 2.25GB/hr total
Mobile
- Also optimizes for bandwidth - aboout 500MB/hr
Search Engine
Ecosia - dedicates a part of their advertising revenues to planing trees.
Skype
One-on-one call
- Standard Quality = 135MB/hr
- 720p = 240MB/hr
- 1080p = 720MP/hr
Group call
- 3 Participanys = 900MB/hr
- 5 Participants = 1.8GB/hr
- 7 Participants = 3.6GB/hr
*Micosoft Teams
One-on-one call
- HD = 1.2GB/hr
Group call
- Standard Quality = 225MB/hr
Slack
One-on-one call
- Standard Quality = 540MB/hr
Group call
- 3 Participans = 810MB/hr
- 5 Participants = 1.2GB/hr
Printers & Photocopiers
- Set sleep modes for printers
- Set double sided printing in black and white as the default
- Use recycled paper - Make sure that it’s 100% waste paper and avoids chemicals
** Production takes 2-6x less water and 3-4x less energy. (Source) - Have a network printer that’s shared and put it reasonably far away so people have to walk to get it. It makes them think twice about printing something (it’s good to get a little exercise anyway).
- Recycle printer cartridges
- Look for low melting point toner. These can save up to 40% of the energy because it reduces the warm up from stand-by mode. Also saves you time.
This section covers general advice. Find more ideas for sustainable servers, computer labs, and computer-intensive research.
Use Reusables
Encourage reusable mugs, water bottles, plates and cutlery.
Have a water fountain map.
Use compostable coffee capsules, or even better, refill-yourself capsules.
Share/Donate Office Items
Before buying something, check out our Share/Donate/Buy section to see if another lab may have spare or unused/underused equipment or consumables.
Warp-it provides a platform to find, give away, and loan office furniture
Old office furniture is often accepted graciously by charities for resale.
Website
A model to follow for minimizing the carbon impact of your website.
It’s not plug and play, but following as many of these rules as possible and copying their code may help.
1. Does not load any images before they are actively requested by the user.
2. Minimizes the power consumption on the users device.
3. Adapts to reflect the amount of renewable energy it’s currently running on.
4. Informs the user of the impact of their browsing behavior.
5. Does not make use of videos.
6. Stores data locally on the user’s device to minimize data transfer.
7. Compresses all data to the greatest extent possible.
8. Loads only the most crucial programming scripts, frameworks and cookies.
9. Limits the amount of light emitted by the screen.
10. Optimizes and limits the use of custom fonts.
11. Avoid the colour blue - Blue pixels arethe most energy intense!
Heating and Cooling
In the winter, consider keeping your office area chilly and ask members to wear a sweater. We suggest not going over 20°C.
In the summer, try setting the air conditioning a maximum of 6°C below the outside temperature. This also decreases heat shock when when going outside.
Some offices have installed occupancy sensors. When it detects that there is no one, the heating or air-conditioning is shut off.
In off-periods (e.g out of hours, holidays, etc.) consolidate working areas. Shut down some buildings or rooms to heat of cool fewer areas.
Windows
- Look for gaps regularly
- Get blinds to keep heat in the winter and keep room cool in the summer
- Have sensors on windows, so that when one opens the window, the fan/air-conditioning system stops
Stop Junk Mail
Still getting those catalogues from your supplier? Contact them to get them to stop.
Advertising mail (junk mail) accounts for 59% of all mail received in the US. The EPA estimates close to 5 million tons of junk mail is sent out every year. This equates to millions of trees cut down, manufactured, and distributed.
For others, try Catalog Choice - a non-profit group that can help you stop receiving junk mail. Just go to thier website and enter your address and provide them with the companies that are targeting you. They will do the heavy lifting and stop their soliciting with no cost to you. About 95% of the opt-outs are honored by companies. If they don’t stop, you can send in a complain to Catalog Choice for them to investigate. (US only)
Reduce Water per toilet flush
If you haven’t splurged for a low-flow toilet, you can mimic by putting a jug or jar of water in the tank. The New York Times reported that a sealed half gallon container will save half a gallon on each flush. If you flush 5 times daily, with 10 people in your lab, you will save 700 gallons (2650 liters) of water every month.
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