Dear colleagues,

The Cardinal Green Office Programis helping to make our building more sustainable.One thing they’ve taught me is that with over 110,000 electronic devices across campus, it is important that we all do what we can to control the energy consumption of our appliances. In fact, many of these devices, such as printers, copiers, and computers, are even using power when they’re turned off!If all of this “standby power” on campus were to be eliminated, the university could save $190,000 in electricity costs per year!

Our office is installing smart power strips and programmable timers to help combat this issue. See the descriptions below for information on how each of these energy efficiency devices works. You can also refer to this Sustainable Stanford How To Guide for more information. [Link to new How To Use Smart Strips & Timers How To Guide]

Timers

Timers cut power to appliances at pre-scheduled time intervals. In an office setting, this means they can be set to cut power overnight and turn power back on in the morning. In our office, timers will be installed on [insert all applicable appliances]. Each appliance will have a sign posted next to it with the timer’s pre-scheduled on/off hours. Please let me know if the posted hours don’t fit your schedule, and we will adjust them.

Smart Strips

Smart power strips use a “control device” to manage the electricity use of all peripheral devices. In an office setting, the control device will typically be your computer (either the hard drive for a desktop computer or the docking station for a laptop computer). The control device should be plugged into the blue outlet on the smart strip. All relevant peripheral devices (such as a personal printer, headset, speakers, subwoofers, or desk lamp) should be plugged into the green or clear outlets (their color will differ depending on the type of smart strip). Finally, any devices that need to stay on all the time (such as a phone) should be plugged into the red outlets. The devices in the red outlets will not respond to the control device.

Office of Sustainability interns will install smart strips in predetermined locations throughout the office based on their audit of our space. If you have questions about your smart strip or how to use it, please contact Moira Hafer in the Office of Sustainability at or 650-497-5471.

Thank you for your help in greening our workplace!

Sincerely,

[Your name]