Small Habit, Big Impact: How our Eco Leaders helped cut energy waste

Published on 17 June 2025

Untitled design (4).png

Over the past few months, one of our internal staff committees—the Eco Leaders—launched a campaign to encourage better energy-saving habits, focusing on one simple action: switching off computer monitors at the end of the workday.

Why this focus? Because it’s easy, visible, and effective. To understand our baseline, the Eco Leaders conducted a secret audit before the campaign began. They checked how many monitors were left on or in standby mode overnight at four of our sites: the Government Centre, Newman Street Depot, Children's Services Centre, and the Ned Kelly Discovery Hub.

The results were eye-opening: 89% of monitors were left in standby mode overnight.

In late April, we rolled out the campaign, encouraging staff to be more mindful of switching off their monitors before heading home—knowing a second secret audit was coming sometime in May. When the follow-up audit was completed, we saw a clear improvement: only 61% of monitors were left on standby—a 26% drop.

To put that into perspective -

Before the campaign:

  • 398 monitors were counted.
  • 346 were left on standby.
  • Standby power use = ~0.5 watts/hour.
  • That’s 1,128 kWh/year—translating to roughly 970 kg of CO₂.
  • Equivalent to 80 days of electricity use in the average Victorian home.

After the campaign:

  • A 26% drop in standby monitors.
  • Estimated savings = 552 kg of CO₂/year.
  • Equivalent to saving 48 days of household electricity use.

This small change in behaviour shows just how much of a difference we can make—both at work and at home. 

 

Back to top