FSS energy saving tips and tricks

Energy Use Tips & Tricks

1. Delete (large) mails and documents you no longer need. But how can you easily find those emails? Just by clicking on the size icon in all your folders, the largest emails will appear on top.
2. Create files in Microsoft Teams e-mail people the link to your Teams file, instead of attachments. Work together in one Teams file, instead of everyone saving copies. 
3. Use a Teams channel for messaging, instead of e-mailing. 
4. Instead of sending a thank you reply via email you can use notifications and send a thumb instead. In the right upper corner of your inbox next to your profile picture is an icon shaped as a bell, there you can find notifications and send a thumb or other icon as a response. This will save emails and thus data! 
5. Check the size of your mailbox and/or folders and make a note of it. You can do this by right clicking on the name of the mailbox (your own or a shared one). Click on the ‘data file properties’ button. Next click on ‘Folder size’. At ‘Total size (including subfolders)’ you will see the size, and you can check it for each folder. A next step for now or later, would be to go over the bigger folders and delete what you don't need anymore.  
6. Create an archive folder, which you can use to store mails that you might not need to read anymore, but you don't want to delete just yet. Set a date for when it is okay to delete that content of the archief folder. You can choose, for example, to add a yearly reminder in you agenda, or just add the a date to the name so you are reminded of it.
7. Scan your mailbox for newsletters. Unsubscribe from the ones you don't read; deleted the old ones and keep the ones you do read (and possibly delete/archive when finished reading). 
8. Rename folders by adding a year to it. Some information is sensitive and should not be kept for a long time. Other information can be for example a yearly project and this information is not relevant anymore after several years. Add a date to the name can help keep track of time limits.  
9. Always turn off your PC/monitor when you go home. A screen in sleep mode uses about 5-15 watt/hour of power. 
10. If possible, turn off the heating.
11. Close your room door when you leave your room. Many rooms are equipped with a motion sensor. If the door is open, the light will stay on.
12. Turn off your Wi-Fi when you are not using it. When Wi-Fi is on, it continuously authenticates and this consumes energy.
13. Don't leave your charger plugged in. 

Teams
The owner of a Teams channel can see the size of the stored data of that specific channel. The owner can check the size by clicking on the little wheel (settings) and next on 'site contents’. Click on the little wheel there, and it will show the information.  

When going through data on Teams, measure the before and after size to see what difference you'll have made. For a first start, just check the size and discuss with your colleagues which data may be old enough to be archived for now or simply deleted. Always create an archive folder first if you are not sure if something can or should be deleted! 

Things to keep in mind: 

• Don't delete if you are not sure! This is about awareness first, second comes the actual cleaning up. Set a date to look at the data again, and research in the meantime if you are not sure.  
• An important factor to keep in mind is the ‘bewaartermijnen' (Document Management and Archive). Because we deal with a lot of personal and sensitive data, there are some rules when it comes to how long we can or must store certain data. Lecturers for example, need to keep graded student works for 2 years after the end of the academic year, but the course evaluations should be kept for 7 years. The Education Office needs to keep admission documents for 2 years. There is a big variation on these 'bewaartermijnen', also for researchers. You can find the rules on VU.nl or ask your team which ones are applicable for the type of data you have.  
• Think before you print, and think before you thank! While most of us think twice before printing documents, thinking before you send a 'thank you’ email is something else we can be aware of. In the right corner of the email, you will find a button with a smiley. By clinking on it you can select the appropriate emoticon, and this will save an email!