Students

Best Practices for Students @ School

1. Buy smart

• Purchase Energy-Star 5.0 and EPEAT-rated equipment
• Buy a laptop over a desktop for significantly better energy savings

2. Turn off your computer, monitor, and other devices when not in use

• Save more energy than sleep mode
• Plug gadgets into power strips and keep them off when not in use
• Choose “smart” power strips that have combination outlets (manually switched and always-on), motion sensors, and other advanced features

3. Use “sleep” settings when your computer is on

• Learn how to set power management settings:
• Monitor/display sleep: Turn off after 15 minutes or less
• Turn off hard drives/hard disk sleep: 15 minutes or less
• System standby/sleep: After 30 minutes or less

Screen savers do NOT save energy

4. Save resources—reconsider printing

• Reduce paper usage
• Print only final copies of assignments
• Print double-sided

Plugged-in electronics continue to draw power; unplug unused equipment!

• Try narrower margins, if it doesn’t conflict with report style
• Save money—don’t buy a printer; use your per term printing allocation at Campus Computing Sites

5. Reuse and responsibly recycle old computer equipment

• Sell it

Save your Qwizdom receipt and the Computer Showcase will buy it back!

• Donate it; try freecycle.org or a2ecycle.org
• Recycle it; visit michigan.gov/deq to find out where/how to recycle electronic waste