UM Sustainability Lecture Series

The University of Montana is putting on a sustainability lecture series this fall: “Will Work for Sustainability.” All lectures are on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9 pm in the Gallagher Business Building room 122. The kick-off is September 1st. For a full, detailed list of lectures see http://www.cas.umt.edu/evst/sustainability_lectures.htm.

Rebates on New Energy Star Appliances

If you replace an old appliance with a new Energy Star one, you can get a mail in cash rebate of $100 for refrigerators and washers, $70 for freezers, and $50 for dishwashers. The program will go on for as long as funds are available so take advantage of this great opportunity to conserve energy and save on your power bill.

For more information on recycling facilities and program details visit the Montana ENERGY STAR® Appliance Rebate Program website: www.mt.state-rebate.com

S.A.V.E. Demonstrates ALL Electric, Green Powered Vehicle in Butte and Helena

Starting with recycling at the National Folk Festival in Butte this July, S.A.V.E. has been utilizing and promoting an all electric truck on loan from EcoAuto of Bozeman.

The Vantage EVR1000, produced by Vantage Vehicle International of Corona, CA, is an ALL electric four door small truck that can be charged with a standard household outlet for a emission free range of 30 to 40 miles per charge. The electric vehicle is able to utilize Montana's Medium Speed Electric Vehicle law.

S.A.V.E. is charging the vehicle using a solar trailer owned by the Montana Renewable Energy Association or a resident enrolled in Northwestern Energy's E+ Green Power program. Photo highlights and more information coming soon!

- Savemobile.org

Daily Water Conservation Tip

For more tips visit: www.wateruseitwisely.com

GreenGov Webinar: Reducing Federal Energy Use Through Smarter Computer Power Management

Today the US EPA and the Office of Federal Environmental Executive sponsored a webinar on Computer Power Management. This webinar offered some tips on how to help organizations (and households too!) effectively conserve power and cut costs by making a few adjustments to computer settings. The easiest way to conserve power is to make two simple adjustments:

1.) Set the monitor to go into “sleep mode” after 5 to 20 minutes of inactivity.

2.) Set the computer to “system standby” or “hibernate” after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity.

Note: For laptop computers, these same two settings should be applied.

Also, in addition to these Power Management techniques, you can have employees turn off their computers in the evenings and on weekends.

For detailed instructions on how to change these settings please visit the Energy Star website at www.EnergyStar.gov/LowCarbonIT then scroll down and click on “Power manage your computers and monitors” under the “Joining is Easy” heading.

For some organizations there may be conflicts with activating the sleep settings on many computers all at once or ensuring that the sleep settings do not interfere with essential software updates such as security and antivirus. To solve these challenges there are many free and commercial software products that can assist you. For a full list of solutions go to the above website and click on “Implementation Resources” in the “Quick Links” box on the right side of the screen. Also, the Energy Star technical experts are willing to offer free assistance.

For more information about this webinar and future Green Gov webinars please visit: www.fedcenter.gov. This webinar can be found by clicking HERE.