A real-life study by energy management firm AlertMe shows that if just one person leaves their desktop PC and monitor on standby for ten days during the Christmas period, they will emit 4kg of CO2.
This is 200 times more CO2 than 100 Christmas fairly lights left on over the same period.
Scaling this up across Britain’s 2.1 million small businesses, this equates to 8,973 tonnes of CO2.
AlertMe estimates that this adds up to a £40m in wasted power over the ten-day Christmas period.
“People shouldn’t be feeling guilty about spreading the Christmas cheer,” says AlertMe.
“Fairly lights today are cheap to run, but it’s all to easy to leave your workstation on standby without even thinking, and this will have even more impact if you’re away from the office for the full ten days over the holiday.”
The company estimates that if ten people out of an office of 50 leave their PC and monitors on standby, together with standard office equipment such as printers, scanners, fax machines and photocopiers, 331kg of CO2 will be wasted. Across the whole of the UK, this adds up to 695,000 tonnes.
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