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Did you know?

• Turning out the lights in a classroom during two unoccupied hours per day (lunch and after school) can save $50 over a school year
• Achieving a 10% reduction can often be accomplished through minimal efforts, such as turning off lights that are not needed and properly configuring power management software on personal computers
• Shades and blinds can reduce energy in the summer
• Energy conservation and management involves people, technology and maintenance
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV set for three hours or light one 100 watt light bulb for 20 hours.
• 34.8 billion aluminum cans are thrown away each year.
• Annually 84,000 tons of batteries are discarded in the U.S.
• Your remote is great for channel surfing, but when you use it to turn off your TV, that’s not what happens. A remote puts your TV (or VCR) on “standby,” meaning that it still runs on full power. The only way to really turn it off is by actually hitting the on/off switch when you’re done watching. Idle TVs, VCRs and cable boxes in the U.S. use more energy than a million cars driving on the road, so take the extra few steps to turn them off right!
• Washing clothes in hot water uses 15 times more energy than using cold. Each laundry load done in hot water releases 15 pounds of CO2 into the air. But using cold adds less than a pound. The average family does about 400 loads of laundry every year. If yours used cold water instead of hot, you’d use 95 % less CO2. CO2 traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, and that can cause droughts, floods, and hurricanes. So you can see why every bit of energy saving helps!
• Americans use about 2 billion disposable batteries a year – and instead of being recycled (like they should be!) most end up in landfills. Batteries contain toxic chemicals like cadmium, which leak into the soil and water, and can cause brain, lung, and kidney damage. Using a set of rechargeable batteries will help keep toxins out of landfills, and can save you up to $2,000 In the long run since you can reuse them hundreds of times.
• Americans use 90 million metric tons of paper a year. We’d never suggest you stop using paper, but why not give it a second life? Recycling is always a great option, but you can also have fun finding new uses for magazines you’ve already read. Try tearing out cool pictures and using them as envelopes or as wrapping paper instead of buying the mass-produced stuff. You’ll save trees – and, even better, you’ll show off your own personal style!