Being Green
Make your contribution to being green by following some of these handy tips.
ENVIRONMENTAL TIPS & FACTS
Save money and reduce climate change
When you cut your greenhouse gas emissions by saving energy, you’ll also save money on energy bills. An average Australian household generates about 14 tonnes of greenhouse gas each year. Each tonne of greenhouse gas avoided will save between $130 and $470 depending on the type of energy used (exact savings will depend on the price you pay for each type of energy).
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1. When choosing a home location, consider the time and cost of travel from there to work, school, shops and leisure activities.
2. Switch to green power. It is likely that most of the electricity you use comes from non-renewable sources like coal. However, there are some utilities that will sell you climate-friendly electricity like wind, biomass, or solar if you ask for it.
3. When replacing an electric hot water service install a high efficiency gas or solar unit.
4. Water conservation – Take shorter showers and use a water efficient showerhead.
5. Install a rainwater tank.
6. Use bio degradable detergents and products.
7. Compost the garden.
8. Have a worm farm.
9. Wash your clothes with cold water. If you usually use hot water for your laundry you can cut your energy consumption in half by choosing warm water, and up to ninety percent if you choose cold.
10. Use solar power – dry your clothes on the clothes line outside, not in a dryer.
11. Recycle and use recycled products. Products made from recycled paper, glass, metal and plastic reduce carbon emissions because they use less energy to manufacture than products made from completely new materials. Recycling paper also saves trees and lets them continue to reduce climate change naturally as they remain in the forest, where they remove carbon from the atmosphere.
12. Act globally, eat local fresh products. If you shop at a supermarket, the food you buy may travel in a plane from the other side of the world, burning fossil fuels the entire trip. Shop at a local farmers’ markets and you will find fresh and healthy food, and help save our climate.
13. When building, renovating, renting or buying a home, aim for high energy-efficiency and install energy-efficient appliances with low standby power usage and lighting.
14. Energy efficiency – Switch off your second fridge or appliances except when they are really needed.
15. Turn down the heat and air conditioning when you aren’t home.
16. Warm up your home with insulation. Make your home more comfortable by insulating draught-sealing and shading windows in summer.
17. Change your home’s air filters. Conserve energy by doing some basic home maintenance like replacing air filters and insulating your heating ducts.
18. Make the switch to compact florescent bulbs. Replace five most-used light fixtures with EnergyStar rated compact fluorescent and save. CFL’s are widely available, affordable, and they last ten times longer than traditional bulbs.
1. Take public transportation.
2. Find a carpool buddy at least once a week.
3. Ride a bike – or take a walk. Not only is riding a bike or walking a climate-friendly way to commute, it’s good for your health, too.
4. Pump up your tires.
5. When buying a car, buy a fuel-efficient one or a hybrid.
1. Be creative – anyone can be an environment champion at work.
2. Video meetings. Use webcams, skype, phone or email to conduct virtual meetings instead of travelling to a meeting by car/plane and help reduce fuel consumption.
3. Email signatures always advise people to think before they print.
4. Go paperless (as much as possible). Offer the option to send invoices via email, rather than wasting paper by sending physical bills in the mail. Use B-pay.
5. Reduce print waste by default setting to double sided printing.
6. Recycle paper use the reverse side to take messages or print on.
7. Recycling bins only have bins in a central point and not in individual offices and always have recycling versus general waste
8. Turn off devices when not in use. Put devices like TVs, amplifiers, DVD and CD players, game consoles, speakers, computers, monitors, printers, faxes and other devices into standby mode when not in use or, better still, turn them off at the wall.
9. Multi-switch powerboards include a switch for each outlet, allowing you to reduce energy usage by turning off individual devices.
10. Use a power strip. Office equipment from faxes to toaster ovens draw energy just by being plugged in. Save energy by plugging all office equipment into a power strip. When you leave the office, just flip the off switch on the power strip.
11. See the light. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. These energy-efficient bulbs help fight climate change because they reduce the amount of fossil fuels that utilities burn. Turn lights off when not in the room.
12. Ask for motion sensors in low-traffic areas. Use motion sensors in lesser travelled hallways, restrooms, conference rooms, and storage areas.
13. Air-conditioning/heating. Turn down the heat. Heating and air conditioning needs to be a set temperature and not constantly adjusted. Call maintenance if it’s too hot or too cold.
14. Plant native trees.
15. Repurpose waste. Can waste and scrap be used for something in your business or someone else’s? Could you even turn it into something profitable?
16. Rechargeable batteries Using regular throwaway batteries is not only harmful for the environment, but can also become quite costly if you use batteries regularly. Rechargeable batteries can be slightly more expensive than the alkaline variety, but can be charged and recharged up to 500 times, and reduce the amount of disposable batteries that end up as landfill.
17. Reuse and recycle printer cartridges Instead of buying expensive new ink cartridges every few months, used cartridges can also be refilled at stores such as Cartridge World, saving you money while also reducing waste. If reusing cartridges isn’t your thing, used cartridges can be recycled by placing them into ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ collection boxes at participating Australia Post, Officeworks, Harvey Norman and Dick Smith Powerhouse stores. According to Planet Ark, four million printer cartridges have been diverted from landfill as a result of the program.
18. Rent instead of buy. Rather than buying a new computer outright every few years, renting a computer means that you can upgrade to the latest model more frequently, and allows your old computer to be re-used by someone else. Some rental outlets will even replace a computer if you encounter a hardware problem, eliminating the downtime of sending the computer in for service.
19. Sell your old computer Once your computer becomes obsolete, there are many alternatives to simply disposing of it. Selling old computers on eBay can fetch good results, as obsolete hardware may be worth much more than you think.
20. Recycle old computers instead of simply throwing them out, reducing the amount of waste disposed to landfill and allowing materials to be reused in other ways. Planet Ark and Sensis have established Recycling Near You (recyclingnearyou.com.au), a site that allows you to search for your closest computer recycling centre. However, recycling fees may apply. Some hardware manufacturers also offer recycling programs for obsolete computer equipment.
21. Upgrade your monitor Bulky CRT monitors can consume over twice as much power as LCD displays. LCD displays may be a more costly up-front purchase, but can save you money in the long run. Reducing the brightness of your display can also help to reduce energy usage.
- Buy the right size fridge to suit your needs: the star rating on the energy label compares energy consumption per litre of storage. Don’t buy bigger than you need.
To compare different sized models, use the numbers on the energy labels – they show annual energy consumption (and annual kilograms of greenhouse gas).
Small fridges and wine coolers without energy labels are now being sold. Many of these are very inefficient, and can generate up to 6 times as much greenhouse gas and cost much more to run than energy-labelled fridges of the same size.
- Finding your way around the fridge
Ensure good air circulation around the coils at the back of the refrigerator. Appliances with no coils on the back need good air circulation around both sides and back: save up to 150 kilograms of greenhouse gas each year.
- Locate refrigerators and freezers in cool spots, out of the sun: save up to 100 kilograms of greenhouse gas each year.
- Ensure door seals are clean and the door closes properly – if ice builds up rapidly the door is not sealing. The seals may also need fixing or replacing.
- Using the fridge efficiently
Ensure door seals are clean and the door closes properly – if ice builds up rapidly the door is not sealing.
A third of Australian homes have at least two fridges, many of which are old and inefficient. Switch off the second fridge except when it’s really needed: for a single door fridge, save up to a tonne and $130 each year.
To keep food safe and save energy, set the fridge temperature at 3–5°C. Setting it 1°C lower than necessary releases 15 to 50 kilograms more greenhouse gas each year.
Put cold items back in the fridge immediately after use. Cooling a 2 litre bottle of drink from room temperature generates ten times as much greenhouse gas as opening the fridge door.
If the fridge or freezer motor runs almost all the time, ring for maintenance: otherwise you could waste over 20 kilograms of greenhouse gas for each week the fault remains.
Avoid running LPG/electric fridges on electricity: they generate three or more times as much greenhouse gas as electric-only fridges of the same size. Using LPG, they generate about as much greenhouse gas as electric-only units.
- Buying a family fridge with an extra star on its label cuts greenhouse gas emissions by more than 100 kilograms each year. Over its lifetime it will save $200 in running costs.
- Evaporative air-conditioners use water rather than refrigerants, and some new models are incorporating water saving features.
- Like fridges, many modern air-conditioners still use refrigerants that both attack the ozone layer and are very active greenhouse gases.
- Air-conditioners typically have ten times more refrigerant in them than fridges, so it is even more important to avoid leakage when installing them, using them, or throwing them away.
- If your air-conditioner isn’t performing as well as it used to, it may be losing refrigerant. Check for other factors such as a clogged filter, then call a licensed service person sooner rather than later, to minimise refrigerant loss.
- Car air-conditioners use similar quantities of refrigerants to home units.
- When disposing of an old fridge or air-conditioner, ensure the refrigerant is recovered.
- Each year, electricity used for lighting an average Australian home generates around three quarters of a tonne of greenhouse gas and costs around $100.
- Remember, it’s not the volts that matter: more watts means higher energy bills and more greenhouse gas.
- Over its life, a typical compact fluorescent lamp saves around a third of a tonne of greenhouse gas and $45 and avoids the cost of 6 or more incandescent globes. And you don’t have to change the bulbs as often.
- Install energy-efficient lighting Fluorescent lamps cut greenhouse gas emissions and running costs by 75% while producing as much light. They come as circular or linear tubes, or as plug-in compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).
- Don’t connect more than three lights to each light switch—then you can leave lights you don’t need switched off.
- Low voltage halogen lamps are not low energy lamps: each one generates a kilogram of greenhouse gas every 15 hours—about the same as an ordinary 60 watt globe, although it does produce a little more light. Halogens are not easily replaced by more efficient alternatives, so installing them locks you in to high lighting bills.
- Remember, it’s not the volts that matter: more watts means higher energy bills and more greenhouse gas.
- Fit lower wattage globes (or compact fluorescent lamps) in bright lights, especially down lights and spot lights: save up to 75% of greenhouse gas.
- Select light fittings with reflectors that direct light where you want it and do not absorb too much light – coloured glass can halve light output, creating a need for higher wattage lamps.
- LED (light emitting diode) lamps are beginning to appear for outdoor use and specialised applications like night-lights. These lamps are very long-lasting and efficient. We’ll see a lot more of them in coming years.
- Traditional CFLs deliver most of their light to the sides: an effective reflector may be needed to direct the light. Corkscrew shaped CFLs and CFLs enclosed in frosted plastic spheres distribute light in a pattern more like that of incandescent lamps.
- Install efficient outdoor lighting
- Just a few outdoor lights left on every evening can double a household’s lighting greenhouse gas emissions and lighting costs: switch them off if they’re not needed.
- Install daylight and movement sensors so outdoor lights switch on when they’re needed but don’t waste electricity.
- For outdoor lights that must stay on for long periods, use energy-efficient compact fluorescent or LED lamps and choose the lowest wattage lamp that gives enough light. It’s also worth considering solar-powered garden lights.
- Use lights efficiently – turn off unnecessary lights, including fluorescent lamps. Leaving fluorescent lamps on doesn’t save energy or cut greenhouse gas emissions – switch them off! Use daylight instead of artificial lights – but don’t overdo it – large windows and skylights add to summer heat and winter cold. Paint often used rooms with light colours. Dark colours absorb light, increasing the amount of lighting needed.
- Use desk lamps or standard lamps (with CFLs in them) where most light is needed, so less lighting is required in the rest of the room.
- Modern dimmer controls reduce greenhouse gas emissions as they reduce light output. They also extend lamp life. Dimmer controls can now also be used with some CFLs, but check the label first.
- Clean lamps and fittings regularly: over time, dirt build-up reduces light output.
Standby power is the electricity consumed by appliances when they are switched off or not performing their primary function. It’s sometimes called leaking, vampire or phantom electricity.
If your computer, printer, fax or photocopier complies with the ENERGY STAR standard, it can automatically switch itself into a power saving sleep mode after a certain amount of idle time. In the case of computers, the monitor will go dark and other components, such as the hard disk and main processor, will reduce the amount of power they’re using by about two thirds.
The time it takes for equipment to ‘go to sleep’ can easily be set to suit the way you work. And as soon as you need to use the equipment again, you can simply press a key or move the mouse and it ‘wakes’ up, ready to operate, with all your settings, programmes and documents exactly as you left them.
Not only will this save you money; it can also reduce the risk of accidental fire. But the fact is, standby power accounts for an increasing proportion of the world’s energy use. In ‘developed’ countries, it can represent up to 12% of household electricity consumption. In Australia, standby power could be costing consumers around $500 million every year — and resulting in greenhouse gas emissions of more than 5 megatonnes (CO2 equivalent) annually. Worldwide, standby power is estimated to account for as much as 1% of global greenhouse emissions.
Most of the energy used by products on standby is not performing any useful function. A small amount can be needed for maintaining memory or an internal clock, remote control activation or other features. But most standby power is wasted energy. ENERGY STAR enabled products minimise this waste.
Did you know?
- A computer and monitor (without ENERGY STAR enabled) left on for a year generate the same amount of CO2 as a car travelling from Sydney to Perth.
- Printers spend approximately 95% of their time sitting idle.
- Fax machines are often left on continuously, but their actual use time amounts to only about 1 hour per day.
- Screensavers do not reduce the power consumption of a computer monitor unless they actually turn the monitor off.
Home electronics products currently use anywhere between 1 watt and 20 watts on standby, and can be in this mode for between 16 and 22 hours per day. ENERGY STAR compliant products help reduce wasted energy and save money without sacrificing features, performance or cost. As a general guide, manufacturers and purchasers should ensure that all products are shipped with the ENERGY STAR low-power features activated or enabled and tested.
ENERGY STAR products
- At work
- Copiers
- Computers and monitors
- Printers and fax machines
- Scanners
- At home
- Consumer Audio and DVD
- MFDs – Multifunction Devices
- TVs and VCRs
What are the benefits of using ENERGY STAR products?
- Using energy efficient office equipment can reduce energy consumption of individual products by more than 50%.
- Heat can cause equipment failure. With power management features activated, your equipment generates less heat, so it may last longer. And, components that cycle, such as hard drives and microprocessors, are more reliable when power management is used.
- Because ENERGY STAR products produce less heat, this contributes to a cooler and more comfortable workspace and reduces air-conditioning costs.
- ENERGY STAR enabled equipment has the added advantage of reducing office noise levels by powering down when not in use.
You should know…
- Copiers that have earned the ENERGY STAR “sleep” or power down when not in use, and use 40% less electricity compared to standard models.
- ENERGY STAR qualified high-speed copiers feature duplexing units that automatically make double-sided copies, reduces paper costs by about $60 a month. Using less paper also saves energy because it takes 10 times more energy to manufacture a piece of paper than it does to copy an image onto it.
- Businesses that use ENERGY STAR enabled office equipment may realize additional savings on air conditioning and maintenance.
- Computers and printers
- If left inactive, ENERGY STAR qualified computers enter a low-power mode and use 15 watts or less. New chip technologies make power management features more reliable, dependable, and user-friendly than even just a few years ago.
- Spending a large portion of time in low-power mode not only saves energy, but helps equipment run cooler and last longer.
- Businesses that use ENERGY STAR enabled office equipment may realize additional savings on air conditioning and maintenance.
- Over its lifetime, ENERGY STAR qualified equipment in a single home office (e.g., computer, monitor, printer, and fax) can save enough electricity to light an entire home for more than 4 years.
- By leaving the machine on around the clock, you run up your electric bill, you suck in dust and you make your equipment/computer more vulnerable to power surges.
- An ENERGY STAR label is not a guarantee that your machine is saving energy. Always check to ensure that the ENERGY STAR features are enabled.
Computers: A well-designed ENERGY STAR qualified computer will not lose its network connection, which could lead to a loss of data, while in the low-power or sleep mode. Most of the computers that are being manufactured today include a capability to sleep intelligently on a network. A laptop computer used 5 hours each day generates around 40 kilograms of greenhouse gas each year. Desktop computers used the same way can generate between 200 and 500 kilograms. More than half of this is from using the monitor.
- Monitors: Only after the machine has been used 20 to 30 years will switching it on and off five times or more a day increase the frequency of faults in power transistors in the control and deflection parts. An LCD panel monitor generates around half as much greenhouse gas as a conventional monitor. And adjusting its brightness lower can cut emissions to a quarter.
- Screen Savers: Despite common belief, a screen saver does not save energy. In fact, more often than not, a screen saver will not only draw power for the monitor but will also keep the CPU from shutting down.
- Games: Many popular computer games, when running in the background while multitasking, will not allow the computer to go to sleep-even if the game is paused.
Printers and fax machines
You should know…
- Copiers that have earned the ENERGY STAR “sleep” or power down when not in use, and generally use 40% less electricity compared to standard models.
- ENERGY STAR qualified high-speed copiers feature duplexing units that automatically make double-sided copies, significanly reduce your paper costs. Using less paper also saves energy because it takes 10 times more energy to manufacture a piece of paper than it does to copy an image onto it.
Scanners
You should know…
- Scanners that have earned the ENERGY STAR can cut the equipment’s electricity use by over 50%.
- ENERGY STAR qualified scanners automatically enter a low-power “sleep” mode after a period of inactivity.
- ENERGY STAR scanners cost the same as standard scanners.
- Spending a large portion of time in low-power mode not only saves energy but helps scanner equipment run cooler and last longer.
Consumer Audio & DVD
- When they’re in standby, ENERGY STAR qualified audio products use as little as one tenth of the energy used by standard models.
- Australians spend more money to power home audio products when in standby than when actually in use.
MultiFunction Devices (MFDs)
You should know…
- By powering down, MFDs that have earned the ENERGY STAR can reduce energy costs associated with use by almost 40%
- Spending a large portion of time in low-power mode not only saves energy but helps multifunction device equipment run cooler and last longer
- ENERGY STAR qualified machines can print double-sided pages, reducing both copying and paper costs
- Businesses that use ENERGY STAR enabled office equipment may realize additional savings on air conditioning and maintenance.
Multifunction Device: A physically integrated device or a combination of functionally integrated components whose primary function is copying, but is also able to perform one or both of the additional core functions of printing, faxing or scanning. The MFD may be connected to a network, and may output black-and-white, gray scale, or color images. The specifications outlined above apply to standard-sized multifunction devices designed to handle A4 or 8.5″ x 11″ paper and large format multifunction devices designed to primarily handle A2 or 17″ x 22″ paper or larger.
Televisions, VCRs, & Combination Units
You should know…
- ENERGY STAR qualified TVs use about 25% less energy than standard units.
- You can find the ENERGY STAR on everything from standard TVs, to HD-ready TVs, to the largest flat-screen plasma TVs.
An average Australian household generates close to 6 tonnes of greenhouse gas and spends around $8,000 each year on transport, of which $2,500 is for fuel. Some households spend more than $13,000 each year on transport.
Travel less Every litre of petrol saved cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 2.8 kilograms and saves you at least $1 plus vehicle wear-and-tear.
Travelling takes time, costs money, involves risks and, if using motorised transport, generates greenhouse gas. Each kilometre of car travel avoided saves up to half a kilogram of greenhouse gas and 20 cents in operating costs. If you can do without that second car, you’ll also save thousands of dollars each year on car registration, insurance, loans and depreciation.
Plan trips so you combine doing several things on each trip: save time and fuel. Short car trips with a cold engine use more fuel and cause more wear-and-tear.
Make a call! Replace that drive with a phone call, email, text message or fax. Working from home for some or all of the time can cut transport and parking costs – and save time.
Make the switch to smart travel Instead of driving, ride a bike, use public transport, car pool or walk – get fit, reduce driving stress and save money. Public transport timetables are available on the internet, by phone call, and even by text message in some areas.
Greenhouse gas emissions from different forms of transport (Kilograms of greenhouse gas per person per kilometre)
Buy a fuel-efficient car: it may be cheaper to buy and can save up to 20 tonnes of greenhouse gas and $10,000 in fuel over its life. Fuel consumption of similar sized cars can vary by up to 30% depending on brand and features. Check out www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au for comparative information on greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution performance of new cars. This website can also provide fuel consumption information on second-hand cars.
All new passenger cars, off-road vehicles and light commercial vehicles sold in Australia must display fuel consumption labels. Use the label to select a fuel efficient model. And check www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au to compare options before going to a showroom.
Use cars efficiently
- Drive smoothly and avoid stop-start traffic: save up to 30% of greenhouse gas emissions and fuel cost.
- Ensure tyres are pumped up to maximum recommended pressure so they roll more easily: save up to 100 kilograms of greenhouse gas each year, extend tyre life and improve safety.
- Remove unnecessary weight for your car: 50 kilograms less weight cuts greenhouse gas emissions by almost 2%.
- Remove unused roof racks, external sun visors and other features that create more air drag.
- Use of road transport by households generates 42 million tonnes of greenhouse gas each year, of which more than 14 million tonnes is used travelling to and from work.
- Switch fuels Diesel can cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20% relative to petrol. A variety of renewable fuel blends and fuels with greenhouse benefits are becoming available.
- Car airconditioners Have the car airconditioner checked from time to time as leakage of refrigerant from car airconditioners also adds to climate change: see CFCs and HFCs section for information. Airconditioning can increase fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions so use it appropriately.