Please remember to turn off your monitor during lunch hours and switch off your electronic equipment at night. You can use a screen saver to power down your monitor. If you're using Windows 95, this can be done with the screen saver module 'Blanc Screen' and using the 'Energy Star' check box. If your monitor does not support this, consider this option if you're going to buy another one.
Best of all, buy a TFT monitor right now. You'll never want to own a CRT monitor again, if you tried one of these TFT displays (but please pick a good one, and do look for pixel defects before you buy). You can save energy big time using one of these flat panel displays. They're wonderful, because they save space, too. And they're not as expensive as you might think. If you stick with 15.1 inch display panels, you can get them as low as 1590 Swiss francs. The best panel so far, for an analog TFT monitor in my opinion, is the LG Electronics StudioWorks 500LC (you can buy this display at Office World in Switzerland).
Almost every device has a power switch to disconnect the electricity. Leaving your equipment standby can waste a lot of energy, depending how old it is. My TV set uses only 1 watt per hour in standby. But older TV sets could use 10 or more watts per hour. If you're not sure you can check the standby power consumption with a power consumption meter.
If you own a modern laser printer, it's very likely equipped with an energy saving mode. You can check the printer manual on how to activate this feature to work for your printer and to save your money.
If you shop for a new computer display, please consider Energy Star compliant models. Buy a TFT flat panel Display, if you can afford it. A high resolution display is quite o.k., automatic power down is even better. You can use Windows 95 to power down your monitor if it's not used. On the Macintosh, there are similar tools to do the same. All you have to do is activate these screen savers. And please check if your monitor uses <1 watt if it's completely powered down. Some models consume electricity, even if turned off with the power switch. Don't bother using them.
Many computer come with monitor power outlets on the back. Don't miss that option. It's very convenient to turn on the computer and the monitor using only one power on switch. And it helps you save the energy your display is using even if it's switched off with the power switch. I've seen displays using 3 or more watts per hour when they're completely switched off. If you own one of these, this tip should help. And it's much easier than unplugging the display all the time to save energy.
Well who doesn't. Please recycle old CD-ROMs. It's for free. Perhaps your employer already set up a recycling container at the office. Or perhaps you could encourage him to do so. It's very popular to receive CD-ROMs with almost every computer magazine. These CD-ROMs are sometimes very useful. But they do age very fast. So they're about to become trash very soon.
Recycling makes perfect sense, because CD-ROMs and the so called jewel cases can be recycled to produce some other goods. Even IBM is building new computer cases with recycled CD-ROMs. Or you could buy one of these cheap clock assembly sets and build a nice and shiny (that depends on the CD-ROMs print) wall clock. And please remember: CD-R and CD-RW media can be recycled, too.