Going green at the office

[wheel]

Let's say you're in leased office space. Normal office requirements, lights, lots of paperwork, computers, phones, heating and cooling as needed.

How do you cost-effectively go green and or save energy?

[swa66]

When replacing computers take care what you cause when you sell the old computers. If those are going to run them all day you might not have gained on a macroscopic scale (on the contrary perhaps). Similarly, you've no control over how they'll dispose of it when they're done with it (it might end up in an illegal dump half way around the globe).

Still when buying new computer look beyond the energy use alone, also look at how polluting the manufacturing process is, how much recycled material is used in producing the computers, a well as how recyclable and toxic the computers themselves are once you're done with them. Even a standard LCD screen contains stuff like arsenic and mercury, plastics contain highly toxic flame retardants.

A good way to get overview of what vendors are doing is to only buy gold EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) registered computers: [epeat.net...] has the overview. In the EU there is a compliance with RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) that products need to comply with, if outside the EU it might be smart to check if it has the RoHS label. There is also an US centric energy star label, but I doubt it means much these days.

Also look at how you get stuff in and out of your place. Getting something produced locally should be far preferable to getting it from half around the world. Similarly getting it a bit slower (so it can use ship/train to get to you) vs. airlifting it will also significantly decrease transportation costs to the environment.

[whoisgregg]

We did our own energy assessment using the "Kill-A-Watt" tool. You just plug it in to the socket, then plug the device into it and it tells you how much power the device is using.

For computers, we did tests of the computer sleeping, awake but idle, having the person do "typical usage" and finally did a test with the computer simultaneously moving huge files over the network, playing a DVD, copying lots of files on the hard drive, etc.

Most of our computers are Macs, so in the end we are switching most of our stations over to Mac Minis.

[Old_Honky]

I once asked the driver why they did that: He told me they have a machine that sorts the colors of the glass automatically now.

I'd bet that he was being economical with the truth, and there is no such machine. I witnessed a similar event in the recycling centre at my local Tesco when they dumped all the skips into one big open truck, all the glass shatters and mingles so it would have to be some machine to sort that lot out.

The truth is virtually no council in the UK recycles at the moment because they can't afford to. The bottom has dropped out of the market for re-cycled materials as the credit crunch bites. They still expect you to sort it into different colour bags then they put them all in the same incinerator or landfill. Pointless!

The thing I hate the most is the gestapo-like power of the local authorities to impose this fad upon us. Even the bin men are aggressive - if they think you have put the wrong items in a bag they will slit it open leaving a mess on the pavement which you the householder has to clean up. Then when you phone their boss to complain you find they don't take your rubbish away the next week because (they say) you didn't put it out.

I can remember when they opened your gate, came in, took the bin away and emptied it then returned the empty one to it's proper place.

[lawman]

>>I can remember when they opened your gate, came in, took the bin away and emptied it then returned the empty one to it's proper place.

Me too. I'm also old enough to remember my pediatrician coming to see me at my house (born 1950).
:)

[grelmar]

The thing I hate the most is the gestapo-like power of the local authorities to impose this fad upon us...

Don't get me started. Every house/apartment in my city pays a tax/subsidy for curbside recycling. The program has been "test run" in the two wealthiest neighborhoods in town for the past five years, while the rest of us fill up the trunk twice a month and drive all the recyclables to the "nearest" sorting station.

But, back on topic...

1. Laptops usually pay for their increased initial cost with energy savings (compared to desktops) quite quickly.

2. Get rid of the CRTs now and replace them with LCDs.

3. Non-obvious trick Reduce the number of printers in the office. Use only high efficiency laser printers (ink-jets should be outlawed, they're outrageously wasteful on so many levels). Make sure the printers you buy are networked printers and...

Put those networked printers someplace inconvenient to get at. You'd be amazed how much less people print stuff off when they have to walk halfway across the floor to retrieve a print job. If that printer is right beside their desk, people think nothing of printing something off just to read it once on paper instead of reading it on their screen.

[wheel]

We've had the energy audit, very basic. Upgrade lights (flourescent bulbs and switch ballasts from magnetic to electronic), cost about $600US, save about $180-$200 annually. So payback in 3-4 years. Or immediately, since we've got a government subsidy to do this :).

Our office is mostly lights and computers. And saving about $20 a month on our electricity makes me even more suspicious of the cost of my computers. Particularly those 6 year old tower servers sitting in the back closet running 24/7. Big piggies I'm thinking.

I spoke online to a Dell rep today, asked them what models they had that were energy efficient. All of them! replied the rep. yeah, I appreciate the enthusiasm for your products but if we put aside your slobbering can I have a straight answer? It's tough to find out what's available off the shelf that's energy efficient - there's a lack of consumer palatable information out there.

That's surprising, since it's starting to seem to me like I've got a 2-3 year payback on some of this stuff and maybe less; well within range of what many businesses will spend money on.