Times' power bill down 25pc

Here's an article I ran across on the web, the article details reducing carbon foot prints of hardware along with saving enormous amount sof electricty. More over it mentions that they replaced all of thier stand alone copiers, faxes, printers and scanners with multifunctional devices. (Art)

IN the space of one year, The Fiji Times Limited cut back the amount of electricity it used by around 25 per cent. This came off the back of sustained implementation of the principles of its 1 Degree environmental program over the year to June 2008. The savings in electricity consumption translated into a 17.4 per cent smaller bill over the year to June 2008 compared to the previous year.

A large part of the success of the program has been because of staff involvement in helping save energy to save the environment. "It's a great win for every person who works here who have taken the time to switch off lights, computer terminals and air-conditioning units whenever these are not in use," said Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika.

The company also created an internal Carbon Council, driven by volunteers who consulted, collated and helped introduce new technology, ideas and initiatives to help the environment.
In its Suva headquarters, the biggest results were generated with a 25.8 percent fall in electricity consumption, which generated a 17.3 percent saving in costs. Its Lautoka office had an 8.36 per cent reduction in consumption, which translated into a 21.1 per cent saving in electricity costs. And while expansion of the Labasa bureau saw a 3.98 per cent increase in the amount of electricity used, this still saw an 8.5 per cent fall in costs.

The dramatic falls in electricity consumption proved that with a bit of effort, many people can help generate dramatic results, Mr Rika said. He said The Fiji Times wanted to lead by example, and was keen to ensure that more people embraced 1 Degree principles to help save the environment. "Together we can make a big difference to the type of environmental future we choose to have," he said.

1 Degree was launched in Fiji on June 25, 2007, with the goal of helping empower individuals, staff, families, and communities to take charge of the climate change issue and by doing so, change Fiji's collective future.

"Everything from the electricity we use, to the fuel in our cars, the carbon impacts of air travel, the heating and cooling of our buildings and the way we handle our waste and recycling affects what sort of carbon footprint we leave on our planet and what sort of impact we will have on global warming," the company says.

The Fiji Times, the nation's oldest newspaper, started its campaign to become carbon neutral by 2010 with an audit of power use. It recognised technological solutions such as the need to replace any CRT computer monitors with low energy LCD panels. Low energy LCD panels use 75 percent less power than CRT computer monitors.

It also replaced fluorescent tubes with "greener" triphospher lighting and put multi-function units in place of power-hungry stand-alone printers, faxes and copiers. By consolidating servers, printers and copiers, the company was able to cut the costs to run them by around 50 per cent.
Some of the measures the company is looking at over the following year are lighting timers for common areas and "green" cars including those run on electricity and bio-diesel.

Over the year to June 2008, the company cut its carbon footprint with various measures including minimising the use of urns and replacing them with kettles where possible, recycling paper that has been used on one side only.