DeviceGuru

In the latest results from an online survey of 13,829 PC users, slightly over half say they’re not currently using their PCs’ power management capabilities, such as sleep and hibernate modes, to save power when they’re not actively using the systems. Fortunately, nearly all participants who aren’t currently using power management acknowledge that they’d like to change their ways.

We first examined the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s PC power management survey two years ago, and are disappointed to report that the current results are roughly unchanged, in terms of percentages.

Instigated by Google in 2007, the Initiative bills itself as “a nonprofit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses, and conservation organizations.” Its primary goal is to “promote development, deployment, and adoption of smart technologies that can both improve the efficiency of a computer’s power delivery and reduce the energy consumed when the computer is in an inactive state.”

The Initiative’s current objective is to “reduce global CO2 emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons per year, equivalent to the annual output of 11 million cars or 10–20 coal-fired power plants.” This was intended to lead to a 50 percent reduction in power use by computers and a savings of $5.5 billion in energy costs by 2010.

Check out our prior post highlighting the Initiative’s list of the top 10 ways to save PC computing energy.

Incidentally, DeviceGuru.com is an Affiliate member of the Initiative. Perhaps your organization would like to join, too? For more information on the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, visit the group’s website, where you’ll find video case studies, tips and tricks for saving energy with PC, suggestions on how organizations can save energy through energy-efficient computing practices, and other information and resources.