Tips For Green Computer Use

One cannot stop using computers, but there are several things that one can do to help minimize one’s carbon footprint when it comes to computer use:

Buy according to your Requirement: If you are not working a great deal on your computer, and don’t use it for a lot of things, then perhaps you can do without some of the bells and whistles. Consider for instance whether you need a printer.

One often finds that one has gone ahead and bought a state of the art printer / scanner / photocopier, which one finds later that one has no use of.

Also if you have a monitor that is working fine and giving trouble free performance, then consider not buying the newer fancier one and stick to the old monitor. If you can get by with a smaller and less energy intensive system then go for it; restrain yourself from the fancier configurations.

Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off: Yes we said it thrice, but it bears repeating. When not in use, turn off the computer.

If there are web pages or several tabs you have opened most browsers now (particularly Mozilla Firefox) will remember the web addresses for you open the pages again for you when you next log on; even more than one page with several tabs each, will be recovered from the cache the next time you log on.

Rule of thumb: if you are going to be away for more than 10 minutes, turn it off. If it is absolutely not possible for you to turn it off, at least have it place the appropriate settings that will let your computer go into hibernation.

Recycle and Buy Recycled: What you no longer need, please recycle. Whatever you put in the landfills is really not going away for several hundred years!

Also if possible consider getting recycled or refurbished items. Suppose you have some small amount of printing that you need to do from time to time, then you don’t really need a brand new, state of the art printer, an old one will do very well so hunt around for one.

It will also save you a lot of money. Refurbished items are those which are pre-owned but refurbished, usually by the manufacturers themselves.

Don’t print unless you have to: With a little practice you can get used to reading off your screen; it just takes getting used to. Save yourself the unnecessary hassle and cost of printing and conserve resources at the same time!