College Students Could Save $206 Million in PC Energy Costs this Year

College Students Could Save $206 Million in PC Energy Costs this Year

Being "green" is at the top of everyone's mind right now, and as students head back to school this fall, now more than ever they are looking for ways they can make a real impact on the environment. Data released by the Climate Savers Computing Initiative this week revealed that college students could have a major impact on the reduction of greenhouse gases this year, simply by using power management on their desktop PCs.

According to the Initiative, the 18 million students expected to attend U.S. universities and colleges this fall could save more than 2.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year by enabling power saving features on their desktop PCs. That equals an annual savings of more $206 million in energy costs and a 1.8 million-ton reduction of CO2 emissions from the operation of computers – equivalent to taking more than 350,000 cars off the road.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is an environmental effort to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the energy efficiency of computers and promoting the use of power management tools. Their goal is to achieve a 50 percent reduction in power consumption by computers by 2010. The initiative was founded by Intel and Google, and includes Dell, EDS, the EPA, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, PG&E, and the World Wildlife Fund.

“Today, the average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power,” said Urs Hölzle, senior vice president, Operations & Google Fellow. ““We are asking businesses and individuals throughout the world to join with us to institute better power management of their computing equipment and purchase energy-efficient computers.”

Individuals can join the Climate Savers Computing Initiative by signing up at www.climatesaverscomputing.org.