Go Green at PSU

Earth Day is Sunday, April 22, 2007

Earth is the planet we all share, and it needs our help to keep it healthy. On April 22, we celebrate Earth Day, a day to focus on what we can do together, and individually, to help fix environmental problems around the world.

The Green Room Way

Take Action:

• Turn your computer off overnight and on weekends. Be bold and turn it off between classes or over lunch. Be bolder and turn it off when away from it for more than a few minutes.
• Unplug chargers and appliances (a.k.a. fans, TVs, curling irons, etc.) when not in use, especially if they do not maintain memory settings.
• Configure your computer to turn its monitor off after a few minutes and to enter sleep mode after 20 minutes or so. You can also adjust the brightness of a computer’s settings. Visit the ITS website for additional tips on configuring your computer.
• Contact your local public water supplier and producer of bottled water for chemical analysis to compare the two.
• Recycle your plastic and glass bottles, your soda cans, and your paper. Recycling bins for these items are located all over campus.
• Reuse your plastic shopping and grocery bags as trash bags in your little wastebaskets.
• Use products with little to no packaging, or that are enclosed in recycled packaging.
• Take your own thermos or mug to get coffee.
• Wear organic cotton.
• Use a canvas or string bag for shopping.
• Copy on both sides of your paper.
• Use the blank side of used paper for scratch-pads, and then recycle it.
• Edit documents on screen before printing them.
• Buy in bulk.
• Carpool to the grocery store.

Green Myths...Busted!

Myth: Repeatedly turning a computer off shortens its lifespan.
Reality: Computers are designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles—many more than the average computer will experience.

Myth: Turning a computer off uses more energy than leaving it on.
Reality: The average power surge created by a computer booting up is less than the energy it consumes when it is left on for more than three minutes. The same goes for room lights.

Myth: Appliances don’t use power when they are turned off.
Reality: Many appliances—VCRs, TVs, computers, cell phone chargers, and such--rely on constant power for memory settings and clocks. These "phantom loads" can be identified by those little black boxes that plug into the socket.

Myth: My computer is an Energy Star model, so it automatically saves energy.
Reality: Energy Star computers still need to be configured by the user to take full advantage of the energy-saving features.