Update on the Climate Savers Computing India Chapter

By Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

This past week Climate Savers Computing held its Annual Member Meeting. We discussed many of our recent successes, including the launch of Climate Savers Computing India chapter, with initial local partners such TERI, CII-ITC Centre Of Excellence For Sustainable Development, MAIT and NASSCOM.

This is an exciting venture for CSCI as India is the 6th largest producer and consumer of energy in the world, and it’s been projected that their energy use will only increase as computers become standard in many of India’s smaller markets. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker for 4Q08, there are 4.1 million more desktop PCs and 2.4 million more notebook PCs in use in India in 2009 than in the previous year. By 2010, India will have 47 million installed PCs making it a priority to educate its growing population about energy-efficient computing that can save money, energy and in turn, the planet.

Housing over 17 percent of the world’s population, India is the second largest country on Earth and #12 on NationMaster.com’s list of countries with the most PCs. Increased reliance on computers has helped transform India into an efficient emerging economy, but it correspondingly also impacts CO2 emissions. To put it into perspective, the United States is ranked #1 on NationMaster.com’s list, with idle PCs emitting approximately 20 million tons of CO2 emissions a year, which is roughly equivalent to the impact of four million cars.

The members of the India chapter of Climate Savers Computing will work hard to encourage the development of more energy-efficient computing devices and practices and have an exciting roadmap in development. The roadmap includes educational programs, potential awards and toolsets for the channel and educational institutions, competitions, awareness campaigns and the establishment of government relationships to develop joint energy efficiency programs. The team has already established relationships with various states and government organizations such as the Bureau of Energy Efficiency and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. As always, the team there is looking to aggressively recruit leading companies and other organizations to be a part of our great community and represent leadership within their particular industry. We welcome any contacts or networks we might be able to tap in developing the membership there.