Watch the TMO! video created for the Youth Energy Network by Wade Vroom.
To learn how to start this campaign at your school read through Turn Me Off! one of our Energy Shift Actions.

An awareness campaign using a student created flyer to inform teachers and students about phantom power use and the steps they can take to stop it. The flyer was distributed by teachers to all students in the school in addition to community members during an evening energy assembly at the school.

What exactly is phantom power? Phantom power is the electricity your home appliances and electronics use even when they appear to be off. Some devices that use phantom power are televisions, microwaves, cell phone chargers and remote control sensors.

Click HERE and HERE to download the flyer (front and back) and distribute it at your school!

Phantom Power Busters 101

Time: Prep ~ 3-4 weeks
Cost: $500.00 for printing 1300 8.5”x5.5” colour flyers
Grade Range: 10-12
Target: Whole School
Note: Click HERE to get a copy of our Energy Shift Checklist to help guide your team through the project.

Step 1 ~ Permission:
Gain permission to present the phantom busters flyer to staff during a monthly staff meeting.

Step 2 ~ Research:
Go on-line and find interesting information and facts on phantom power.

Step 3 ~ Design:
Choose a designer to take the information you’ve found, lay it out and make it look exciting. For help with the layout, start with a flyer or brochure template and modify it.

Step 4 ~ Print:
Decide how you would like to print the flyers. If you have a budget, go on-line, search for print shops and get at least three quotes to find the best price. Before calling the printer decide on flyer: size, colour, paper type and quantity. Colour costs at least double so chose the option that works best for you. For a low budget option, use the school photocopier OR even better save paper by distributing it through the school as a PDF

Step 5 ~ Plan:
How do you want to tell teachers about phantom power? Your teachers will be spreading the message on phantom power to the whole school so make your presentation engaging and to the point. Don’t forget to be creative! In addition to showing them the flyer think about: creating a power point, doing demonstration with a wattmeter or running a short skit.

Step 6 ~ Engage:
After your flyers are printed present them to your teachers so all your classmates can receive one. If you’ve had extra flyers printed, hand them out during school community events or even to local community centres

Often when we print, we forget about the energy and environmental consequences of our actions. It’s so easy to scroll over, and press the print button without giving a second thought to our planet or our energy consumption. When we print, we not only waste paper but also ink.

Did you know?

• Average cost of a wasted page $0.06

• Average employee prints 6 wasted pages per day, that’s 1,410 wasted pages per year!

That’s a lot of paper being wasted, and lots of trees being killed. There’s also a devastating effect to our energy sources as well.

• The U.S. pulp and paper industry is the second largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.

• Production of 1 ton of copy paper uses 11,134 kWh (same amount of energy used by an avg household in 10 months)

SPRANQ, a creative communications agency based in Utrecht, Netherlands, has developed a new font that lets your ink cartridges last longer and makes your printer more energy efficient.

Introducing the

Ecofont is an innovative font that was designed by removing bits of the letter without hindering legibility. After lots of testing, it was found that having small circles in the letters helped reduce ink use yet still maintain readability.

At first, I was apprehensive about seeing holes in my type, but typing in Ecofont at 12pt font was actually very practical. The holes were unnoticeable unless you tried staring at each letter with a magnifying glass! I definitely suggest that you should try it out not only is it practical, but it also looks great and is energy efficient.

Paper facts from:
GreenPrint http://www.printgreener.com/earthday.html