St. Mary’s College Joins EPA’s Energy Star Million Monitor Drive

By joining the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Energy Star® Million Monitor Drive,” St. Mary’s College of Maryland will save energy, money and the environment by putting its computer monitors to “sleep.” The goal of the drive is to set one million monitors to “power management mode,” which switches monitors into a low-power “sleep” mode during periods of inactivity.

Working closely with such federal agencies as the EPA and the Department of Energy, St. Mary’s College of Maryland has enabled the power management features on 327 computer monitors and will add 473 more by July 2007.  This initiative will save about 160,000 kilowatt-hours over the next year, or enough electricity to light 185 U.S. homes for one month. 

“Every watt counts,” says Maggie O’Brien, president of SMCM. “St. Mary’s College is committed to using energy efficiently, and the simple act of powering down our computer screens is helping us reduce our energy use, save money and cut CO2 emissions. We estimate that this program will reduce campus CO2 emissions by a total of 136 tons annually, the amount produced each year by 23 cars.”

Computers are used intensively on college campuses and continue to consume energy even when idle. Most of the energy used by computers and monitors is wasted because 65 percent of computers and monitors are left on at night and 45 percent of monitors are not enabled for power management. 
The Energy Star Million Monitor Drive is helping St. Mary’s College of Maryland eliminate waste by making the organization-wide activation of monitor power management quick and easy. 

Energy Star, jointly managed by the EPA and the DOE, allows consumers to easily identify energy-efficient appliances, electronics, office equipment, lighting, heating and cooling equipment, buildings and homes. For more information about Energy Star and monitor power management, visit www.energystar.gov/powermanagement.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland is ranked one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. With roots going back to 1840, SMCM is the state’s only public honors college, offering the academic excellence of a top private college with the openness and affordability of public education.