Saving Energy Helps the Environment and Your Bottom Line

When looking for an edge that will boost your company’s profits, consider energy efficiency. It may not sound sexy or creative, but thousands of small businesses across the country are finding that this earth-friendly business practice does more than make them feel good, it improves their bottom line.

By investing in energy efficiency, companies can often save as much as 20 percent or more on their utility bills. The reduction in energy use helps prevent pollution too. You might be surprised at how simple it is to save energy, and you’ll be glad to know there are some free or low-cost things you can do right away that will reduce your next energy bill.

Getting Started

ENERGY STAR for Small Business helps companies reduce their operating costs by providing free, unbiased information about energy efficiency through its website www.energystar.gov/smallbiz and a toll free help line at 1-888-STAR YES. It’s your source for technical information, success stories, and quick energy-saving tips like the ones below. You don’t have to be a technical whiz to implement some of the energy-efficiency recommendations. In fact, one of the easiest things you can do is to look for the ENERGY STAR label when purchasing new equipment.

Remember when your parents used to say, “turn off the lights!” They were right. Train employees to turn off lights when they leave the room or install motion sensors and you’ll see savings on your energy bill immediately. Consider installing a daylight harvesting system, which integrate compatible lamps, ballasts, and a photosensor to provide automated dimming depending on the amount of natural light available. These will turn off or dim lights when daylight is adequate and help prevent eyestrain and headaches. In fact, too much light can be as bad for visual quality as too little light, and it costs more.

Another easy way for small businesses to tap energy savings is through computer power management. Did you know that most computers are only used an average of four hours each business day? That means the rest of the time they’re left on is a waste of energy and money.

Monitor Power Management

ENERGY STAR’s Monitor Power Management program has free software tools and services that automatically put a computer monitor into a low-power sleep mode when not in use. A simple touch of the mouse or keyboard “wakes” the monitor within seconds.

For businesses with around 100 computers, ENERGY STAR offers EZ Save, which activates monitor power management through the central file server. By devoting a couple hours to EZ Save, a network administrator of a 100-computer organization can reduce enough electricity to annually:

• Save about $2,000 (at 13.6 cents per kWh),



• Light 12 homes, and



• Prevent 21,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

To download EZ Save, go to www.energystar.gov/powermanagement and click on the “EZ Save” link in the upper right hand corner.