Working “Greener” Can Save Your Law Library

Some “Green”Kathleen M. Sasala, Esq.

Director, Cleveland Law LibraryORALL, 2009

WAYS TO SAVE

Examples of ways to save:1. Curtailing business trips in favor of telephone or video

conferences.2. Changing the thermostat at the office3. Using less paper and/or reusing paper4. Saving energy on equipment and appliances.

Have You Hugged a Tree Today?

Ways We Have Saved Paper

a) reducing the number of patron logs we use every day from 3 to 2;

b) consolidating our public employees’ sign in sheets from 5

per week to 1 per week;c) scanning email documents directly into our copy machine without copying them first;d) sending board meeting documents and correspondence by emaile) converting all but about 115 of our 2,300 members to

receiving our newsletters by email.

How These Efforts Saved

Item Pages SavedPatron Logs 250Employee Sign-in Sheets 1,000New Scanning 350Digital Board Documents 600Electronic Newsletters 8,740

10,940

This equals 22 reams of paper (over 2 boxes) or $72.00

Regular Copy Paper Costs

Vendor Cost per Box

Xpedx $37.90

Staples $35.99

OfficeMax $39.99

United Office Products

$45.99

Recycled Paper Costs

Vendor Cost per Box

Xpedx $59.90

Staples $40.99

Office Max $44.99

United Office Products

$51.99

ENERGY SAVINGS

Power down/turn off equipment

Put equipment into sleep or standby mode

Unplug equipment when you canE.g., adding machine, pencil sharpener, coffee

machine, electric stapler, postal meter, postal scale, fan, and folding machine, etc.

Hard Number Crunching

• Let’s do some number crunching

Assumptions Re: Office Hrs.(52 work weeks)

• % Of Time The Office Is Open (8 hrs. a day):Days: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

2,080 Hours = 24 %• % Of Time The Office Is Closed (16 hrs. a day):

Evenings and overnight: 4,160 HoursWeekends: 2,496 Hours

6,656 Hours = 76%

Assumptions Re: Energy Costs

• Ohio average electricity cost: *

8.27 cents per kWh

*http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/electricity/electricity.html

What Is A Watt ? What is a kilowatt?

Watt: a watt is a measure of the rate of electrical use at any moment in time.

_________________________________________

EQUIVALENCY1 kilowatt hr == using 1,000 watts for 1 hr.

(Kilo means one thousand)

*http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cost.html#kilowatt

How Many Watts Do Devices Use?

• 60 Watt Light Bulb (incandescent) 60 watts• CFL Light bulb (60 watt eq.) 18 watts

(compact fluorescent light bulb)

• 17” LCD Monitor: 40 watts• 17” CRT Monitor 90 watts• Desktop Computer & 17” CRT 150-340 watts• Desktop & monitor asleep 1-20 watts• Laptop computer 45 watts

Devices That List Amps and Volts

AMPS x Volts = Watts (avg. is 120 volts)

How To Calculate Energy Loss?

FORMULA for LOSS

WATTS x Hours X Cost Per = TOTAL 1000 kilowatt hr. COST

Example: Usage 60 watt bulb x 16 hrs. X .0827 = $.079/day

1,000 = $2.37/mnth.

= $28.44/yr.

60 Watt Bulb Savings Per…

• Turning off 1-60 watt bulb for 16 hours a day:

Saves: = $ .079/day = $ 2.37/mnth.= $ 28.44/yr.

LCDs vs. CRTs

LCD CRT

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors use 1/3 to 1/2 the electricity of Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors*

* http://www.wisegeek.com/which-monitor-type-is-better-lcd-or-crt.htm

LCD vs. CRT Comparison Savings

LCD [40 watts]-turning off 1 LCD monitor 16 hrs per day=$.05 per day

=$1.50 per month=$18.00 per year

CRT [90 watts]-turning off 1 CRT monitor 16 hrs per day=$.12 per day

=$3.60 per month=$43.20 per year

Energy Star Equipment

Joint Effort of U.S. EPA & U.S. DOEhttp://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=about.ab_index

Energy Star FAQ’s

Energy Star equipment is certified to: run cooler last longer reduce greenhouse gas emissions save electricity

Our Energy Star Fax Machine

Saved us $17.00 to date over the last 12 months

Energy Star Computers

Windows and Mac’s:Operating systems put monitors and computers into a low-power “sleep mode” after a period of inactivity.

Internet Calculator

• EnergyStar.gov has an online calculator to figure savings on your particular computers and laptops:

• http://www.energystar.gov/ia/products/power_mgt/LowCarbonITSavingsCalc_v26_with_5_0v2.xls

Sleepy Computers May Still Lose Energy

A computer in sleep mode can still lose up to 6 watts of energy every moment.

Putting your computer to sleep every day at lunch time could save between $2.15 - $6.06 per year.

Better Savings from Unplugging

Even better than sleeping is unplugging!

Vampire Energy Sucks !

Vampire Energy Sucks ! (cont’d)

Item Annual Kilowatt loss Cost Annual Loss

Computer 311 8.27 cents $25.72

Laser printer 113 8.27 cents $9.35

Our Total Annual Savings

Green Effort Annual Savings

Saving copy paper $72.00

Cancelling bulk mailing permit $180.00

Turning off 1 60 watt bulb $28.44

Turning off 1 LCD monitor $18.00

Turning off 1 CRT monitor $43.20

Buying an Energy Star Fax $17.00

Putting the computer to sleep at lunch $6.06

Unplugging 1 computer $25.72

Unplugging 1 laser printer $9.25

TOTAL $383.67

Buy A Book With Your Savings*

• Ohio Business Entities, Lexis, $375• Indiana Limited Liability Company Forms and

Practice, Data Trace, $249.90• Kentucky Divorce, West, $255

* Eis, Arlene L., Legal Looseleafs in Print (InfoSources Publishing, 2009)