Businesses of every size can do their share to conserve energy. Even if you rent your office space, these tips can save on your monthly utility bills.

LIGHTING AND APPLIANCES:

• Turn off lights in conference rooms, photocopy rooms, break rooms, and at times, specific areas of office buildings that are unoccupied.
• Turn off extra desk lights and personal lamps in offices.
• If your building or office has a cafeteria or break room with a refrigerator, be sure it isn't an older, energy-hogging model. Replace them with new models, using the annual energy cost on the Energy Guide label to find the most economical buy.
• If your office has a hot and cold bottled water dispenser, turn the hot water element off during the evenings and weekends. It only takes about 15 minutes for the element to heat and begin dispensing hot water again.

MAKE YOUR OFFICE EQUIPMENT MORE EFFICIENT:

• Make certain your computer has the "sleep function" activated.
• Turn off your monitor and your printer when not in use, even if you only leave for a one-hour meeting. These two pieces of equipment are the largest energy users.
• When attending meetings scheduled to last two hours or longer, turn your computer monitor off.
• Remove all screen savers that conflict with the sleep-mode capability.
• Go paperless whenever possible. Avoid printing or photocopying completely during the peak hours. Printing is a high-energy use.
• If your office has electric typewriters or adding machines, turn them off when not in use.
• If possible, unplug electronics devices and chargers that have a block-shaped transformer on the plug when they are not in use.