Here are five tips on increasing the efficiency of front-office equipment:

Do an Energy Audit

It's hard to know where you stand if you don't first measure the efficiency of the equipment you have. Fortunately, a simple, inexpensive meter that fits between the target device plug and the outlet can measure current loads and total power consumption.

Meters include basic models such as P3 International's Kill A Watt or Sea Sonic Electronics's Power Angel, and more-advanced units like the Watts Up Pro from Electronic Educational Devices. Watts Up Pro stores data and includes software for graphing that data over time.

At Geiger Brothers, an audit revealed that computer equipment was consuming nearly as much power after-hours as it was during the day. It became "a driving force behind initiatives to get power consumption down," says Joe Marshall, a business systems analyst and software specialist at Geiger Brothers.

Adopt and Enforce Power Management

"The biggest impact you're going to make in your overall computing environment is to get systems to go to sleep," says Weisblatt. For example, a laptop that uses 14 to 90 watts in full operation uses less than 1 watt in standby mode. Desktops consume even more, and a single CRT monitor may use upward of 90 watts in operation mode.

Some corporations are doing something about it. Network administrator Keith Brown deployed LANDesk Software's LANDesk to manage -- and lock down -- power settings on all laptops, desktops and attached monitors at Gwinnett Hospital System.

Like SMSWakeUp, LANDesk and similar tools can remotely awaken or turn on PCs, upload updates and turn them off again, Brown says. Lenovo recommends configuring employee laptop disk drives to spin down after five minutes of inactivity, setting monitors to go blank at 10 minutes and configuring the machines to go into standby mode after 20.

Dump Those CRTs

Replacing older computers and peripherals with Energy Star-rated equipment can save energy and space, and the decreased power consumption can significantly reduce the need for cooling in office areas. Start with CRT displays. "The biggest offenders are the monitors," says Brown.

Most businesses have already begun phasing out CRTs in favor of more efficient LCDs, which use about one-third of the power. Energy savings can add up. Brown estimates that replacing about 70 per cent of Gwinnett's CRTs with LCD monitors and using automated power management tools has already saved the health care company $32,000 to $65,000 a year in electricity.