Since
IT is unable to regulate the usage of computers on campus there is a lot of
wasted energy that comes from people’s lack of knowledge. In addressing this
issue we hope to educate the faculty, staff, and students about ways to
conserve the amount of energy their computers consume. To address the faculty
and staff we are hoping to attend the department meetings. We would then be
able to very quickly explain the advantages of using power-saving devices on
their computers and of turning them off when appropriate. As this would be an
impossible task for the week we plan on using our time throughout the year to
address everyone.
The feedback from our student survey will give
us a better understanding of where to focus our education for the students. We
do plan to put up information about computer’s energy consumption and how to
reduce this number in the computer labs. We are hoping to place this
information on the backdrop of the computers so we can be practicing what we
will be teaching, by conserving paper and energy. We will also send out an
e-mail addressing the turned off computers in the lab and steps on how to set
up the power-saving devices on student’s computers with information on the
benefits of doing this. This project should be completed by the end of the week
and will at least last through the year.
Lastly we plan to put together a
web site for faculty, students, staff, and prospective students so they can
learn more about energy conservation. The web site will include ways to reduce
the amount of energy their computer uses with step-by-step directions for
setting up their power-saving devices. Our research from the week will also be
on the site for more in-depth information about computers. Lastly, there will
be a page on things to think about when buying your next computer. This will
hopefully encourage the community to think about energy efficiency in
purchasing their next computer. We plan to have the web site updated throughout
the year and to encourage prospective students to use this when buying their
college computer. The tactics that we have planned will have no additional
costs to our project and will use minimal resources.
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