By Lindsey French (‘08)

Clean Energy for Smith (CES) and Information Technology Services (ITS) worked together this fall to try to reduce the overall amount of energy that students consume. They did so by asking students to pledge to set laptops and computer monitors to a power saving “sleep mode.” The Million Monitor Drive (MMD), a national Energy Star campaign that aims to get businesses, institutions of higher education, and governments to save energy and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions of pollutants, drove the effort. For Smith College, the MMD was also a regional competition with Mount Holyoke and Amherst Colleges.

But why target screen savers? Though most people don’t realize it, screensavers waste a considerable amount of energy even when blank; a typical TV-style CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor uses 73 watts and a typical LCD (liquid crystal display) screen uses 40 watts. Both types use only 0-3 watts when asleep. Using the sleep mode when your monitor is not in use not only saves money, it also uses less energy thus reducing the amount of environmental pollutants released into the air. And putting your monitor to sleep isn’t any different than using a screensaver; it will not close any applications or programs, will not interfere with your network settings, and will not log you out of your computer. However, over the course of one year, a single PC set to automatically go to sleep versus using a screensaver can save one barrel of oil or 709 pounds of coal! EPA studies have shown that in the U.S. 60% of computers and monitors are left on at night, while 58% of computers are idle during the day. And did you know that the 55 million computers and monitors in America use more electricity than all other forms of office equipment combined?

Efforts to conserve energy are undoubtedly more effective than investing in methods of cleanup for pollutants. And setting computers to sleep mode is an easy way to save energy. Everyone concerned with human dependence on fossil fuels should find this an easy way to help.

The approximately month-long Smith College student MMD ended November 22nd. We are excited to announce that CES was successful in collecting 1852 student pledges– more than 75% of the student body– to attain their goal and push Smith into first place in the three-school MMD challenge! The group’s reward will be Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for 350,000 kWh - enough to run all of Smith's student computers, or power 275 homes, for a year. The RECs purchase zero-emissions electricity generated by wind power. In addition, the top three participating residence houses, Hopkins House, Park House and Tenney and Wesley (a tie) will be awarded a pizza party, courtesy of Physical Plant. Each of these houses had essentially 100% participation.