Nicolet College has launched a new energy conservation initiative that could save the college as much as $10,000 to $15,000 a year in energy costs and land Nicolet as much as a $4,300 grant from Focus on Energy. The initiative centers around configuring college computers to power down after they've been inactive for 10 to 15 minutes.

“It's common for staff and students to turn on computers when they arrive in the morning and keep them on all day,” said Brian Vaughn, director of Computing and Information Technology at Nicolet. “Now, when students and staff go to class, go to lunch, or attend a meeting, their computers and monitors will automatically go into standby mode, which uses significantly less energy.”

It's estimated a personal computer uses the same amount of energy as a large refrigerator. The total energy savings will be the equivalent of lighting approximately 160 homes for a year and keeping an estimated 144 tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere every year.

“There are a number of benefits to doing this,” said Lynn Schnoor, the Computing and Information Technology technician at Nicolet who is coordinating the computer conversion program. “The college uses less electricity, which reduces both the college's utility bill and the amount of power plant emissions that go into the environment.”

Nicolet has 1,078 computers and monitors. These are located on the Rhinelander and Lakeland campuses, at the Northern Advantage Job Center and North Point training facility, and at outreach centers in Lac du Flambeau and Mercer.

This program is another in a growing list of energy conservation initiatives Nicolet has undertaken in recent years to reduce its ecological footprint. Five years ago the college worked with Focus on Energy, Wisconsin's statewide energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative, to install a 10 kilowatt renewable energy wind turbine and two solar photovoltaic arrays on the Rhinelander campus to supplement the college's electricity demands.

These structures, part of the college's Renewable Energy Center , have also served as teaching and demonstration tools for hundreds of individuals interested in renewable energy.

Last year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed the college in its Green Power Leadership Club for getting nearly a quarter of its electricity from renewable sources. In addition to producing its own renewable energy, numerous Nicolet staff also donate to a fund the college uses to purchase additional electricity from renewable sources. Staff donate nearly $3,000 a year to this fund and then the college matches this amount.