Win a trip to Washington D.C. for the Weather Channel’s Forecast Earth Summit

Our friends at the Weather Channel asked us to spread the word that they are selecting 20 high schools students to win free trips to the Forecast Earth Summit in Washington D.C., Dec. 5-7, 2008. The summit will bring together environmental experts and students who are passionate about the environment to share ideas and thoughts on major environmental issues.



To get involved, visit www.forecastearthsummit.org and tell the Weather Channel what you’re doing to save the planet. While you’re there, you can also download a cool “Green Tip of the Day” widget to plug into your Facebook page, blog or other web site. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative supports the Weather Channel’s efforts to create an open dialogue around environmental issues.



After you’re done submitting your essay, don’t forget to do some good for the earth with your computer. You can reduce your carbon footprint today by setting your computer to automatically go to sleep when you’re not using it. Just follow our step-by-step instructions. In addition to power management, make sure to look for an Energy Star qualified computer the next time you are in the market for a new PC or laptop.

Fuel Cell Powered Laptop is Here, Almost

By Jaymi Heimbuch
EcoGeek

We’ve been waiting around for awhile for a laptop that uses methanol fuel cells. Finally, PolyFuel has finished up a working prototype for a fuel cell-powered laptop, the Lenovo T40 ThinkPad. The laptop runs on direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), and each methanol cartridge provides power for about 10 hours of use. There are some great features to this, and some not so great features.

Read more...

We’re One Year Old!

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative celebrates its first anniversary this month! The relevance of our mission has never been higher. Since our founding in June 2007, the cost of a barrel of oil has doubled, climate change has continued to intensify, and the global demand for energy efficiency has accelerated. In response to these growing challenges, many organizations, governments, and individuals have stepped forward to join us and share their resources and expertise.

In the past 12 months, we’ve grown our membership to nearly 250 companies, published best practices for power management, completed our first round of technical specifications for more energy-efficient computers, and formed alliances with organizations who share our vision. Starting with a small membership base and small marketing budget, we have steadily increased the visibility of the organization, and with the help of new members, have also raised our worldwide impact and goals moving forward.

Tokyo, Hanover, Beijing, Taipei, Stockholm, Shanghai, Melbourne, not to mention Kansas City, New York and San Francisco – just some of the places where we’ve promoted energy efficient computers and use of power management. The organization has become more and more global as we’ve added active sponsor and associate members outside the U.S. Regional Committees are driving the Climate Savers Computing agenda in Japan, Europe and Asia.

CeBIT gave us a big boost in Europe and just last month we signed an MOU with the Green IT Promotional Council in Japan. And we formed an alliance with the China Electronics Energy Saving Council in China who will carry out the Climate Savers Computing effort there. In the U.S. we’ve aligned with the EPA to promote common efficiency targets and power management.

We are in the middle of compiling the results of our first member survey to calculate the performance against our energy savings goals. We should have an update for you on that in the next few weeks, but the early data looks very good.

And that brings me to the point that we’re not finished. We need to stay focused on the 2010 goals! Along with our anniversary comes the first increment in our efficiency goals. All members should review the efficiency criteria for our 2^nd year and be sure to update procurement plans accordingly. Achieving the 50% savings by 2010 requires that we move to more efficient systems each year.

Thank you for the great support of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s work over the last year! Thanks to our growing list of members, we have considerable momentum and expertise heading into our second year. Please post comments on any ideas you have to make us more effective. We are in the midst of planning our annual members meeting -- you’ll hear more on this soon. And I hope to meet you soon.

- Lorie Wigle, Intel Corporation

PCs on sleep mode would save power and the climate, PDX Green says

By Shelby Wood
The Oregonian

The quiet box on your desk or in the living room, that thing that helps you work and buy airline tickets and watch funny clips on YouTube -- it's burning through fossil fuels, too.

The tools to slow the power flow are right inside it, accessible with a few mouse clicks. Pay nothing; give nothing up. Yet most of us never make the fix.

To change that, Intel and Google founded the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a nonprofit based in a Pearl District office. In their sights: Your computer, your kid's computer, your sister's . . . all 1 billion PCs worldwide. The technology giants want computers to go to sleep, and consume less energy, when we're not using them.

Read More...

The PC's Dirty Little Secret: It Wastes Power Shamelessly

By David LaGesse
U.S. News & World Report

Though it is the smartest device in the house, the desktop computer has been dumb when it comes to conserving energy. It's as if every household has a big, gas-guzzling vehicle (or two) in its driveway, all with engines racing. Most people have more computer than they need, says Bruce Nordman, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "It's like we're all driving sport utility computers."

And those hulking, desktop PCs gulp power because they've traditionally been shipped with their throttle stuck wide open. Of course, the energy wasted is more that of a big light bulb than an SUV. But if desktop PCs glowed like their equivalent 150-watt bulb, we'd think to dim them or even switch them off. They don't glow, and few PC owners bother to automatically power them down.

Read More...

The Power Smackdown in the Data Center: IT Department vs. Facilities Managers

OK, it’s not a smackdown like on TV, but it is a power struggle, so to speak. Data centers consume a lot of power in companies. In one corner you have the IT department who is tasked with keeping and meeting the IT needs of the organization, scaling and staying within what is usually a flat budget envelope. In the other corner you have the facilities manager that is trying to manage overall costs, power use, space utilization, and the needs of the organization as a whole. A couple years ago the two rarely needed to talk, except if the data center manager needed more space.

The new smackdown is about power. Not political power but electricity. Globally, electricity prices have risen nearly 60% in the past couple years. Gartner says that 50% of data centers will lack sufficient power by 2008.

IT managers haven’t really had to care too much about power consumption for a couple of reasons. Rarely has power used the data center or any other technology been isolated, so it hasn’t been tracked or measured. The primary focus has been on eliminating business disruption, building IT agility, and meeting business needs. And for most managers, 70% of their budget is spent on maintenance and managing an aging, heterogeneous infrastructure. It’s all about performance.

Facilities managers worry about the physical side of the equation: power costs, getting more compute power out of the same space, and cooling. They wonder where they will get the space, if the utility is going to be able to deliver enough power, if they have enough breakers for new equipment, exceeding rack capacity, and a lot more. For some, the only way to add a new server is to take one out.

So the two sides are forced to talk. The IT manager needs performance. The facilities manager needs control. And what happens if they don’t? Inefficiency, more complexity, and the problems will certainly get worse. But if they do collaborate great things can happen. Here are some examples of what is available today:

• Client desktop systems that use 70% less energy.

• Energy efficient servers that use up to 25% less energy, but deliver the same performance – saving up to $200 per year per server.

• Increasing compute capacity by being able to put five servers in the same power envelope as four.

• Spot cooling solutions that focus on hot spots – saving 30% or more --not on inefficiently cooling the entire room.

• Holistic solutions that reduce energy consumption by up to 75% with the same power usage, or twice the performance in the same space, or twice the number of servers in the same power envelope.

Are there reasons for the two sides to talk? Absolutely. Can the two sides, with the right outside partner, lower costs, increase performance, manage space and meet each others’ needs? Absolutely. Some companies have done a lot of work to simplify this process. But what I’m more interested in are your stories. How is the relationship between facilities and IT? How do you break down the barriers?

-Jeff S. Johnson, Enterprise Strategist at Dell

CeBIT: Green IT Village and Climate Savers Computing

This was my first CeBIT, and I was not sure what to expect. I had heard that it was a very big show, but you have to see it to believe it. With more thank 30 huge halls spread over a large area, it would be exhausting to walk corner to corner. There is no way that anyone can see every stall in every building. The halls are generally organized by themes. Inspite of the size and the large number of attendees, it does not feel crowded. They have 3 color buses running different routes for the attendees, and VW minivans that take exhibitors to any destination.

My visit started with the opening ceremony where my CEO, Steve Ballmer, gave the opening keynote followed by speeches by German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy. It was especially gratifying to hear Steve mention Microsoft's involvement in the Climate Savers Computing Initiative in his speech (of course, I knew he was planning to, but things can change at the last minute)!

There were plenty of signs all over the CeBIT campus pointing to the Green IT Village in Hall 9 with the Climate Savers Computing logo displayed prominently. We were in the back of Hall 9, but still had a fair amount of traffic in sporadic bursts. Allyson (renamed Allymore :-)) was on the front page of the CeBIT News on Tuesday morning. There were several TV stations and radio stations (that I had never heard of before) who came by and interviewed Kevin, Allyson or me. We had print reporters, individuals, and small companies visit the booth. Many signed the pledge. Companies promised to have their management look into it.

Several questions came up, but most were predictable. Some were skeptical. Some wanted to know how this would work in Europe. Were our goals too aggressive? How can we monitor if people really do what they say? I even chatted with someone from Greenpeace!

I was pleased that I had a full house (don't ask how big the house was) for my presentation. I proved to Barbara that I could do 20 slides in less than 20 minutes. I also had several questions, mostly from the moderator from BITKOM, who appears to be warming up to Climate Savers Computing. It will be great if our discussions with BITKOM actually result in them joining and helping us connect with their membership. BITKOM is a national trade association that represents information and communication technology, and new media companies in Germany, with over 800 members.

It is clear that we need a strong European leader to give us more credibility in Europe. The European marketing teams of our US members are doing a good job for us in Europe, but there is nothing better than having a local champion. I have a potential candidate, but don't want to count my chicken(s) too soon.

It will take more than a Green IT Village to save our climate!

From dreary Hannover,

Dileep

- Dileep Bhandarkar, Microsoft

Going green without going in the red: A manufacturer’s view

As a guy that works for a manufacturing company, the term “green” takes two paths. The first path covers how we act as a company – our corporate responsibility to the world. The second is a little more important to a company’s shareholders – the actual selling of greener products. Today I’d like to focus on the product side. To paraphrase, if you build greener products, will people buy them?

Everyone seems to be going (or at least thinking) green. But whether people actually buy greener products is another story. Many people think the terms “going green” and “spending more” are synonymous. In fact, the Green Gauge survey conducted by Gfk Roper Consulting showed that 87% of Americans say they are seriously concerned about the environment, and 79% say a company’s environmental practices affect the products they buy. The irony is that three quarters believe that environmentally safer products are too pricey.

I can tell you that the “pricey” label doesn’t usually apply to greener computers. A few manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to make even more powerful computers while decreasing power use, limiting harmful chemicals, and recycling . Energy Star-rated computers are a great example. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that and Energy Star-compliant PC will save $103 per year in power. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but multiply it times the millions of computers in use today and you have a real environmental impact. So even if the computer costs $50 more you’re still ahead of the game. A greener high-performance server in a data center can save even more – as much as 30% less power.

When you talk about buying greener computers, you need to look beyond the price; just like the tech men and women do that run the IT department at your work. Most people don’t know how much energy and computing power it takes to run data centers, desktop PCs and monitors, and other technology at the office. A typical 50,000-square-foot data center, for example, gobbles 4 megawatts of power a day —the equivalent of 57 barrels of oil per day. And there are tens of thousands of data centers around the globe. The EPA estimates that data centers and servers account for 1.5% of all the energy used in the United States, and I’ve read reports that it is nearly that same percent worldwide.

The people who manage these data centers look at what is called TCO, or Total Cost of Ownership. TCO includes the entire lifecycle of a computer: purchase price, cost to set up and get running, cost to maintain and upgrade it, and how long it will last. Increasingly, it also includes the environmental policies of the manufacturer and disposal after the useful life of the machine. Think about the last PC you bought and multiply it times 140,000. A company like mine has 120,000 PCs (laptops and desktops), 20,000 servers, data storage devices, network connections, printers, and thousands of monitors. So if companies can save even 10% of their energy, the world as a whole is better off.

So if you were buying a computer – a laptop, desktop or server – what would you look for to know if it was greener than another? Here are a couple ideas:

• Look for the Energy Star label: You can find recommendations on the Electronic Environmental Assessment Tool. Make sure you buy products that get a Gold rating.
• Buy computers with power saver settings: Look for models that have factory-configured energy power settings that let you maximize your power savings. Climate Savers Computing recommends that your monitor/display sleep settings turn off after 15 minutes or less, hard drives/hard disks should sleep after 15 minutes or less, and system standby/sleep should kick in after 30 minutes or less.
• Compare using free online power calculators: There are free calculators out there that allow you to determine which models burn less energy. [Desktops and laptops] [Monitors]
• Check the manufacturer’s policies before you buy: Look for policies that limit the use of chemical and hazardous materials at the company from which you buy: Search manufacturer web sites for terms like “chemical use policy,” “lead,” “fire retardants,” and “sustainability.” And don’t pay attention to what they are going to do…only look at what they have done.
• Check the environmental history of the manufacturer: There are some great sites where you can get news, like Treehugger.com, Regeneration.org, Greenbiz.com, Greenoptions.com, and of course Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
• Look at the packaging: See how much post-consumer content is used in the boxes. And look at the number of boxes (some products come in a lot of different packages, rather than one). Also, see if they limit non-recyclable foam.
• See if they will recycle your old computer: Remember that many PCs and monitors have harmful chemicals, especially lead. Don’t throw them away. Some companies offer free recycling of PCs, monitors and ink cartridges (others charge for this) and makes donations to the National Cristina Foundation (NCF) to help disabled and economically disadvantaged children and adults receive the gift of technology.
• When you buy, offset the carbon emissions: My two favorite groups are “Plant a Tree For Me” and the Carbon Fund.

Here is my belief. The manufacturing of greener technology is just the right thing to do, whether people buy it or not. So my company took some really bold steps to do that. What is satisfying is that the marketplace (buyers) is really responding. Let’s have a conversation about this. Tell me what you want in greener technology. Tell me where you are seeing it. Share your links. Let’s grow the interest.

-Jeff S. Johnson, Dell

Delivering measurable improvements to green computing

When the Climate Savers Computing Initiative was founded last summer, we created a very focused goal of reducing the power consumed by PCs and servers by 50% in 2010. As I’ve traveled across the globe discussing Intel’s focus on eco-technology and the metrics laid out by the Climate Savers Computing program, I’ve become confident that the computing industry has the capability to deliver the core technologies which will enable us to achieve the levels of energy efficiency we’ve outlined. After all, the computing industry has never shied away from aggressive innovation since the birth of the PC three decades ago. But in looking at our goals it quickly becomes clear that this innovation only solves part of the issue. With over a billion connected PCs spanning the globe, it will take a major awareness shift in PC user habits to drive our success. With over 90% of desktop users currently not utilizing the power management capabilities provided free on their PCs today it becomes clear that we have a major task ahead of us in creating the awareness that a PC is a device that actually deserves the same attention as compact fluorescent bulbs or water heater blankets.

This is why my first blog for Climate Savers Computing is about how we can tackle this enormous challenge, and I think we can all receive a bit of inspiration from Alexander Lin. For those who haven’t heard of his impressive accomplishments, I’d like to share how I found out about this amazing young man… Okay, I hate to admit it, but yesterday I bought a HUGE bag of Doritos. Questions about dietary choices aside, there was something quite fascinating on the back of the package: a great story about a 13 year-old boy in Westerly, Rhode Island who started an electronic waste (ewaste) management system in his home town and recycled over 40 tons of ewaste to-date, established a new program for on-going collection of e-waste, and delivered hundreds of computers once destined for a landfill to children who would not otherwise have access to PCs. Awesome what he’s done! And awesome that Frito-Lay used some very valuable space on their package to promote it. Alexander is a prime example of the power of each individual to drive change in our communities.

With the Climate Savers Computing challenge of simply turning on power management on PCs and looking for an efficient model the next time you’re shopping for a computer, the change we’re driving is significantly less complex than Alexander’s program. This is why I’m asking you, today, to pledge your support for the Climate Savers Computing program. Additionally, I’m asking you to tell your friends, family and colleagues to do the same. If you’re as inspired by Alexander’s story as I am, you may want to take your communication of our program further to others in your community. It is with these simple actions that we will create the awareness necessary to reach our goal.

-Lorie Wigle