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Can the last one out please turn off the lights? Oh, and the computers, monitors, printers, scanners, fax machines, photocopiers, watercoolers, hot water units and any other electrical devices that usually get left on overnight. The amount of energy that will needlessly be consumed while businesses are closed over Christmas will be bad enough without your office adding to the waste fest.
According to Canon, the nation's offices are using up enough energy to roast 4.4m turkeys when they leave on office equipment over the festive period. Or, put more meaningfully, businesses waste £8.66m on powering empty offices each Christmas. That figure should be enough to scare into action the boss of any company *struggling to make ends meet in these dark days of recession.
So, how to act? The first thing to do is make sure you shut down your computer when you leave and turn off any peripherals (such as printers). Don't just leave them on standby or in energy-saving mode, as this still gobbles up electricity. To be sure they are off, turn them off at the wall.
People often complain that it takes too long to restart the next day if you turn everything off completely, but there will be less onus, surely, on you springing straight back into action after the Christmas break. So, even if time is usually too pressing for you to shut down every night, make an exception this Wednesday.
For some, doing this will be enough. You can now go home and enjoy your turkey knowing you've done your bit. For others, though, the thought of all those machines whirring away in that empty office while the polar ice continues to melt will take the edge off the festivities. If you are one them, you might want to turn off all the computers in the entire office.
You could do it covertly, waiting until everyone has left the building – pretending to have some last-minute spreadsheets to finish or something – before zapping every power switch in sight.
Alternatively, you could talk to your boss or office manager – not forgetting to mention the £8.66m figure when broaching the subject – and get him or her to instigate an official shutdown policy. A politely worded email from on high could make a big difference.
If your company is on board and wants to go one step further and eliminate the waste from even those staff too forgetful or incompetent to do a complete shut down, it could invest in some Intellipanels. These are multiplugs that realise when the main device (ie, the computer) is switched off and automatically cut power to all the peripherals (printers, monitors, and so on). When the computer is switched back on, so are the other devices.
In many offices, people are told not to shut down their computers overnight because it is when IT departments run security and software updates. While this is unlikely to be happening over Christmas, it is worth checking before you *instigate your mass shutdown.
If leaving the lights on is important for security reasons, at least make sure you have them set on timer devices so they only come on at night. Outside security lights that only come on when someone approaches are also better than lights left on indiscriminately.
And if the last people in your office before it fully closes for Christmas are the cleaners, then don't forget to make sure they're on board with your shutting-down policy and that they turn off the lights when they leave.
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