Teaching young kids how to power down the computer is a great way to help them understand the importance of saving energy. Now there is a fun and easy way to do that - the turnOFFtool. Created by a team of Stanford students for a school project, the turnOFFtool was inspired by discussions with parents who expressed how difficult it is for a young child to remember all the steps involved in shutting a computer down. The turnOFFtool, which is free and can be downloaded to your computer in a matter of minutes, bypasses all of the steps it usually takes for you to turn off your computer. Instead, all you have to do is click on a little moon icon which is always available on the screen (or minimized at the bottom of your screen). When you click on the moon, your computer will automatically shut down - or you can easily set it to sleep, if you prefer. Currently, the tool only runs on Windows, but future versions will work with Macs, too, and will allow users to add text or sound effects and select their own picture. For the record, though, we think the moon image with the zzzz’s couldn’t be cuter more appropriate for kids to get the “sleep” metaphor. Bravo, Stanford guys — we likey!

Find It Here: turnOFFtool

Eco Fact: According to the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, leaving a computer on all day for a year could result in more than 1500 pounds of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. To put that into context, it would take 100-500 trees to offset that amount of extra CO2!

By Cristina, May 29, 2008  
Filed under: Gadgets, Home, Kids, Made in USA, Office, Resources, Tech

Since joining Green Mom Finds, I have made a concerted effort to better my family’s recycling habits. Cutting back on unnecessary printing and paper waste? Not so much. Luckily, I’ve found GreenPrint, which was created as a tool to help households and businesses reduce the amount of paper waste. Why? According to their ecofacts, “In 2004 the United States used 8 million tons of office paper (3.2 billion reams). That’s the equivalent of 178 million trees!” How does it work? GreenView displays and highlights wasteful pages and page elements (like pages with just a URL, banner ad, logo, or legal jargon) and allows you choose to print only what you want. The software then removes images or text, creates a PDF file and has a reporting feature which keeps track of the number of pages and the amount of money you have saved. Once you know how much paper and money you’re saving, it’s kind of hard to imagine NOT using GreenPrint.

Find It Here: GreenPrint

By Liz, May 24, 2008  
Filed under: Office, Reduce/Reuse, Resources

How much money might you save by replacing regular incandescent lightbulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs? The Energy Savings Calculator at One Billion Bulbs will help you find out. You just enter the number of bulbs in your household, their wattage, hours used and your state of residence and voila! The Energy Savings Calculator will then display just how much money you could save on your electric bill for the year by using compact fluorescent bulbs. Motivating people by telling them exactly how much cash they could save is sheer genius! And even if you eschew our consumerist culture, you have to admit having a few extra greenbacks in your pocket is always nice, no? (If you’d like to spread the word, you can get code to place a savings calculator on your blog or web page. Nifty!)

Find it Here: One Billion Bulbs

By Sarah, February 26, 2008  
Filed under: Home, Office, Resources

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to clean and organize my home office. After sorting through piles of files, shredding old documents and recycling manila folders, I was ready to replenish some office supplies, including pencils. Now, pencils may not seem like a big deal but since gazillions of them are produced every year, well, they kind of are a big deal. This is why Tree Lover Graphite Pencils by ForestChoice are so cool. These eco-friendly #2 graphite pencils are made from FSC certified California-incense cedar which means that the wood casings for these pencils come from forests that are audited for environmental impact, plantation management, and preservation of indigenous people’s rights. Write on!

Find it Here: See Jane Work

By Dana, February 24, 2008  
Filed under: Office