LEARN MORE AT energystar.gov ENERGY STAR® is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program helping businesses and individuals fight global warming through superior energy efficiency. Bring Your Green to Work with ENERGY STAR® Tips for Small Businesses Boost the energy efficiency of your small business, save money, and fight against global warming with EPA's ENERGY STAR program. Get started with these suggestions from EPA to reduce energy waste in your small business, lower energy costs, and protect the environment. Join ENERGY STAR Virtually any small business can improve its energy efficiency easily and cost- effectively using the numerous resources that are available from EPA. Sign up today and receive free technical support and information for your small business. All you need to do in return is pledge to improve the energy efficiency of your facility and buy ENERGY STAR qualified equipment when possible. Go to www.enerqvstar.gov/smalibiz to get started. Turn It Off High utility costs are often a result of paying for energy that is wasted by lights, equipment, and heating/air conditioning systems that are left on for long periods while not in use. Make sure you turn off lights and equipment when not in use, use convenient automatic controls when possible, and enable the power management features on computer equipment. Use fans to reduce the need for air conditioning, install an ENERGY STAR qualified thermostat to automatically adjust the indoor temperature, and schedule maintenance checkups to make sure your systems are operating efficiently and safely. EPA offers these suggestions and more in its popular guide for small business, "Putting Energy into Profits."1 Change Your Lights Replacing lighting is typically one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to start making energy efficiency improvements. Replace incandescent light bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). CFLs use 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, last up to 10 times longer, and generate less heat than conventional light bulbs. Also look for ENERGY STAR qualified light fixtures, which use a quarter of the energy of traditional lighting and distribute light more efficiently and evenly than standard fixtures. Don't stop with lighting—products in more than 50 categories can earn the ENERGY STAR, including many essential office products such as copiers, printers, fax machines, power adapters, and more, www.energystar.gov/products 1 http://www.energystar. gov/index.cfm?c=sb guidebook, sb guidebook ------- Upgrade and Start Saving Energy-efficient upgrades typically save you money that can be used to pay for the cost of projects. Savings will depend on the operating hours of your facility, condition of equipment, and energy costs—but savings of 25 percent or higher are typical. Ask your local utility if they offer free or inexpensive energy audits and/or rebates for energy efficiency upgrades. A good place to start is the Finance section of the ENERGY STAR Small Business website, which provides links to energy efficiency services and information by state. www.energystar.gov/SmallBizFinance Green Your Power Green power is environmentally friendly electricity that is generated from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun. By choosing green power, you help support increased development of renewable energy sources instead of energy generated by the burning of fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gas emissions. Check with your local utility, or to learn more about green power for your business, visit www.epa.gov/greenpower. If you don't pay your power bill directly, ask your landlord about buying green. 2 ------- |