Tech companies unite to tackle desktop energy waste

Joining the World Wildlife Fund, the EPA, and Starbucks, big-name IT companies announce Climate Savers Computing Initiative

An all-star lineup of tech companies, non-profits, academic institutions, plus one purveyor of coffee products, have teamed up to reduce waste on the desktop on a grand scale.

Intel, Google, Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Sun, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), MIT, Red Hat, and Starbucks, along with some 27 other organizations, announced the launch of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative today, aimed at “setting aggressive new targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.”

As with plenty of the green initiatives cropping up of late, the participants cite both the environmental case and the business case for this program. “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 of operations and fellow at Google, in a written statement. “The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year — and save more than $5.5 billion in energy costs.”

Companies supporting the initiative are committing to building energy-efficient products that meet or surpass the EPA’s Energy Star guidelines, according to the announcement. “In order to decrease the energy usage of computing, the technology industry needs to make systems that are increasingly energy efficient and better educate consumers about what to buy,” said Dave Douglas, vice president of eco responsibility at Sun.

Participating businesses must also commit to requiring high-efficiency systems for the majority of their corporate desktop PCs and volume server purchases, and to deploy and use power management tools on desktop PCs.

The initiative’s benchmarks will initially follow the Energy Star guidelines, but with increasing requirements during the next several years. For example, 2007 Energy Star specifications require that PC power supplies meet at least 80 percent minimum efficiency. The initiative would require a minimum of 90 percent by 2010.

(One question I have is, wouldn’t the EPA’s Energy Star specs surpass 90 percent efficient by 2010 anyway?)

In addition, the initiative raises the efficiency target in the power supply for volume servers from 85 percent to 92 percent efficiency by 2010.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative licensed its name from the WWF Climate Savers program, which involves several leading companies working to reduce their carbon footprint.

“This is the first time our Climate Savers program has been applied to an entire sector, engaging manufacturers, retailers and consumers,” said John Donoghue, senior vice president for the WWF. “We are pleased to join these industry leaders to provide solutions to address climate change.”

Individuals are invited to the Climate Savers Computing Initiative by signing up at www.climatesaverscomputing.org. The Web site includes information on consumers can take advantage of their computers’ power-saving capabilities, which can reduce the amount of energy consumed by up to 60 percent.

The complete list of initial supporters of the effort follows: Intel, Google, AMD, Canonical, CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society), Coldwatt, Dell, Delta Electronics, eBay, EDS, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, Hipro, Hitachi, IBM, LANDesk, Lenovo, Linux Foundation, MIT, Microsoft, Natural Resources Defense Council, NEC, One Laptop Per Child, PG&E, Power-One, Quanta, Rackable Systems, Red Hat, Starbucks, Sun, Supermicro Computer, Ubuntu, Unisys, the EPA, University of Michigan, Verdiem Corporation, World Resources Institute, WWF, and Yahoo.