Please join your fellow UMD staff and faculty to help the environment and save energy.  Before leaving for the long holiday break, please take a few simple steps to help minimize our consumption of energy resources.  Every watt and every dollar counts. 

Working together, we can scale back and conserve energy to reduce our campus carbon footprint.  The Office of Sustainability asks you to:

 *  Turn off all lights and office equipment.

 *  Shut down your computer, monitor, speakers, and printer; consider a simple power strip if you don't have one. (Myth buster: Powering down a computer does NOT cause wear and tear or reduce the life of a machine.  Modern computers are designed to handle 40,000 on-off cycles, many more than the life span of the average computer.)

 *  Unplug all unnecessary appliances, including phone and other electronic device chargers.

*  Close and lock windows. (Energy audit rule-of-thumb: Each cubic foot of conditioned air leaving a building wastes around $3 worth of energy.)

 *  If you have access to it, lower your thermostat to 60 degrees.

*  Ensure all fume hoods are closed (Did you know?  An average fume hood costs around $5,000 per year in electricity costs to operate.)

*  Turn off research equipment, where possible.

Did you know? 

UMD spends around 2.5 million dollars a year on electricity to power our offices, classrooms, and housing.