For a lot of people, tomorrow will be the last day at work for a week, so it is environmentally important not to use any more electricity when you’re not working than necessary. If you work with a computer — and it isn’t a server or something that has to be up all the time — turn it off. Turn off the lights, if you have the option. Unplug any electronic “vampires” that sip a continual stream of current. We need to conserve electricity. And once you get into the habit, be sure to turn off your computer at the end of each work day. You already do this? Congrats. But a report from the BBC, which I got in a daisy chain from Michelle Murrain, suggests that the long relative cheapness of electricity has made many consumers quite content to keep everything on all the time.
“Turning Off the Digital World” (BBC, 15 December 2006)