4 Office Energy-Saving Solutions to Boost Your Bottom Line
What’s your bottom line in your office? Energy efficiency is not typically what comes to mind; however, Energy Star advocates energy efficiency as a proven and effective way to improve your bottom line. In fact, most organizations can reach an energy savings of 2-10 percent per year with maximized energy management. Green living should be part of your office policy and included in your own and/or your employees daily routine.
Cut energy and costs while cutting back on your environmental impact with these four energy-saving solutions for your office or home workspace.
- Store in the Cloud
Whether you’re managing a small startup or running a large corporation, cloud data protection has skyrocketed as the technologically energy-efficient, data backup alternative for businesses. A cloud-based system maximizes power usage, lowers energy and reduces the need for in-house physical hardware and equipment.
Mozy, an online backup service company, offers virtual servers with the option to be scalable and automatically scheduled. These options provide your business with energy conservation, while meeting your custom needs without wasting resources. Since employees can access information via the cloud from anywhere, your company can cut back on travel expenses and even allow employees to work remotely or from home, further saving energy for your business.
- Put Your Computer to Sleep
Working from home has its perks, especially saving fuel by avoiding a commute. However, with a home office you can also cut back on energy with your computer’s power management feature.
Energy Star recommends computer power management (CPM) to save energy and reduce your carbon footprint from daily computer use. After a period of inactivity, CPM features automatically put your computer into low-power sleep mode or turns the power off. Computer system power management not only reduces overall energy consumption, it also reduces energy cooling costs.
- Be Smart About Lighting
In summer 2015, Gartner Inc. stated, “Smart lighting has the potential to reduce energy costs by 90 percent,” driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) architectures. Smart lighting is a lighting system connected to a network with the capability to be monitored and controlled from a centralized system or via the cloud.
Gartner emphasizes that for maximum efficiency, a smart lighting system requires LED lighting, sensors and controls, connectivity, analytics and intelligence.
Enhance your home workspace with mood lighting, monitor your energy usage and set timers by installing a smart lighting system.
- Evaluate Office Energy Consumption
The World Wide Fund for Nature suggests performing an audit on your office; a local electric or gas supplier can evaluate your office and offer energy-efficient recommendations. For example, without proper insulation, warm and cool air can escape, causing significant energy loss. Beading or sealant can help prevent air from getting in through gaps. Ongoing maintenance to keep heating and cooling systems up-to-date also helps reduce fuel costs and improve energy efficiency.
If you’re a department head, share energy-conservation actions that your team can do on their own, such as turning off lights when leaving for the night, printing minimally, commuting to work, using coffee mugs and unplugging devices when not in use.
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