HP continues to highlight its commitment to protecting the environment with useful energy saving tips especially for the home or the office.

It has always been an integral p

art of HP—from its history to its values—to deliver environmentally sustainable products and solutions for the common good.

“It’s actually very easy to save energy, cut costs and reduce the impact of computer products on the environment,” said Bernadette Nacario, country general manager for HP Personal Systems Group. “It only takes a few simple but vital steps that can make a real difference.”

Easy Steps

Making sm

art purchasing decisions is one important step to help keep environment safe. For instance, using an ENERGY STAR® or other energy-efficiency rated and eco-labeled computers and peripherals can actually help in saving energy and money because it utilizes 70% less electricity than those without enabled power management features.

Selecting the proper size of monitor is essential because the bigger the monitor, the more energy it consumes. Flat panel liquid crystal display (LCD) versus conventional CRT monitors reduces energy consumption by a third. It also runs cooler, which helps save on air conditioning costs.

Using multifunction devices (MFDs) – like HP All-in-Ones – can also be helpful as it does all the work with just a single machine. In addition to saving space and materials, these All-in-Ones save energy compared to several products working in parallel. It also helps to choose printers or MFDs that offer two-sided printing because it can reduce paper and energy usage; as with networking printers and copiers that can help in minimizing idle time and provide for more cost-effective use of the equipment.

Proper use and conservation of resources is another key to protecting the environment. Simple things like enabling the energy saving settings on PCs and peripherals—a feature found in all HP products running on Microsoft Windows—could mean a lot when conserving energy, especially since computers in idle mode utilizes 20 to 50 times the power of a computer in standby mode.

Disabling screen savers can also reduce energy use, as well as adjusting your computer’s data backup schedule to run during the workday so there won’t be any need to leave the computer on at night.

Setting printers to sleep mode can also be helpful, especially since the printer can quickly return to “activity” mode once new print jobs are submitted. HP takes pride in keeping with this energy-saving feat, specifically for increases in HP LaserJet “instant on fusing” energy efficiency that have avoided a total of 3.5 million tons of CO2 emissions. This is actually equivalent to a year’s emissions for approximately 680,000 cars.

Powering down all electronics—the computer, monitor, printer and other peripherals—when not in use is also essential. This means unplugging power strips at the end of the day because it still consumes energy even if the equipment is turned off.

Learn more about the steps you can take to improve your energy efficiency and stem environmental climate changes by viewing HP’s Take Action video at http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/takeaction.html