April 25 ,2008—The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is asking organizations to join the Energy Star Low Carbon IT Campaign. By enabling the power management, or sleep mode, on their computers and monitors, organizations will help reduce the growing demand for electricity, and save money while fighting climate change, says EPA.
If all office computers and monitors in the US were set to sleep when not being used, the country could save more than 44 billion kWh or $4 billion worth of electricity and avoid the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of about 5 million cars each year, notes EPA.
Charter participants of the Energy Star Low Carbon IT Campaign include Advanced Micro Devices, Anheuser-Busch Cos., Association of Bay Area Governments Energy Watch, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Dell, Fox Entertainment Group, HP, Microsoft, OfficeMax, City of Portland (OR) Public Schools, City of San Jose (CA), and Snohomish (WA) County Public Utility District.
By enabling power management settings, computers and monitors go into a low-power sleep mode after a period of inactivity, explains EPA. Power management has the potential to save up to $50 per computer annually. Despite the significant savings, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, only five to 10 percent of US organizations have deployed these settings on computers.
The Energy Star Low Carbon IT Campaign is also partnering with the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a non-profit group that includes technology firms, energy companies, and nongovernmental organizations working to promote the use of more energy-efficient computers and increase the use of computer power management. Both efforts share similar goals and cooperate with each other on technical specifications and marketing.
To join the Energy Star Low Carbon IT Campaign, organizations simply take an online pledge to activate power management features on their monitors and computers to save energy and reduce their carbon footprint. Organizations can increase energy savings further by purchasing Energy Star qualified computers and monitors. In turn, EPA provides free assistance to help implement power management, an estimate of the organization’s energy and carbon savings, and official recognition from the agency.
