director's corner

Climate Savers Computing Targets Seamless Interaction between Power Management and Software Apps

2011-07-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

Round-table at IEEE Green Computing Conference to address harmonization of software and power management

ORLANDO, Fl - July 6, 2011 - Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI), the global consortium focused on reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of computing equipment through power management and more energy efficient computing technologies, today announced that it will bring power management experts and software developers together in Orlando for a July 26 round-table at the IEEE Green Computing Conference.

The event will serve as a forum for interested participants to address areas where software applications may interfere with power management on PCs and networked computers, and to collaborate on solutions. The round-table is sponsored by the CSCI Computer Power Management Workgroup and will be hosted by Abhishek Agrawal, senior software engineer, Intel, and George O. Goodman, executive director, CSCI.

"The use of computer power management within organizations and homes is growing and is an important tool for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions," said Goodman. "Developers invited to participate in the CSCI round-table will take a leadership role in helping to ensure power management and software applications can always work together."

CSCI is holding the round-table after members learned of potential power management performance issues when used in conjunction with various software applications. A call for input was issued to CSCI members and the global IT industry to get more information about how software may affect power management. The call for input remains open at http://bit.ly/jyANP3

Software developers interested in receiving an invitation to the July 26 round-table are encouraged to contact Goodman through his blog at http://bit.ly/jyANP3

About Climate Savers Computing Initiative
CSCI is reducing energy consumption by increasing the energy efficiency of computing equipment, increasing the adoption and deployment of power management, and providing education about the financial and environmental benefits of energy efficient computing. Nearly 680 members have joined SCSI since its launch in 2007, and more than 10,000 people have joined as individuals by pledging to use power management and purchase energy efficient computing technologies. CSCI is led by Cisco, Emerson, F5 Networks, Google, Intel Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Samsung and World Wildlife Fund.

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Climate Savers is a trademark or registered trademark of WWF, the international conservation organization. Used under license.

Contact:

Russ DeVeau
e-mail - russdeveau@comcast.net
mobile/text - 908-251-1549

CSCI Newsletter for June 2011

2011-07-01T12:09:00.001-07:00

Beware the vampires
Another reminder that bears repeating is to eliminate "vampire" power consumers in your home and office. Is your laptop fully charged? Unplug the AC adaptor and you'll kill a vampire. Your tablet is all full up on the battery meter? Drive a stake through another vampire and unplug the charger. Look for opportunites to eliminate these small-but-numerous users of power that serve no purpose.
July will see CSCI represented at the IEEE International Green Computing Conference in Orlando, Florida (see below for more info), where we'll have a roundtable-style engagement with software developers around the topic of software interactions and interference with power management. We're putting increasing focus on whacking all the reasons that folks have for not using power management and the real and perceived problems with these interactions are a big one of those reasons. Look at the Call to Action below for a reminder of how you can help...and help spread the word!
As always, if you've suggestions or would like to provide material for a future Newsletter, please contact me!
George O. Goodman
Executive Director, CSCI
Upcoming Events
New CSCI Website and Product Catalog design
launching in July at ClimateSaversComputing.org.
IEEE International Green Computing Conference 2011(IGCC'11)
July 25-28
The Holiday Inn at Disneyworld
Note: The CSCI Roundtable is on July 26

Workgroup Updates
AC-DC Workgroup: Work continues with the 80+ folks, looking at more aggressive efficiency targets to push beyond Energy Star.

Marketing Workgroup: We're preparing for two Roundtable venues on the topic of interactions between software apps & power management and pushing out CSCI's power management messages through traditional and social media, in support of the upcoming roundtables.

Networking Workgroup: The three subteams are moving toward complete drafts on their outputs, with the power-supply unit (PSU) team closest to buttoning things up, the Energy-Efficiency Guide group is working through their full document to make it consistent and clear, and the Networking Power Management folks are likewise working to refine their paper to be clear to the intended audience. All three efforts are shooting for getting material to a reviewable state in July.

Power Management Workgroup: As June ends, the PM Workgroup is in the final days of content creation and polishing for the upcoming roundtable sessions with software developers.
Samsung joins CSCI's Board of Directors
In June we issued a press release announcing that Samsung has become a member of the CSCI Board of Directors. Samsung joins representatives from Cisco, Emerson Network Power, F5 Networks, Google, Intel, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, and the World Wildlife Fund on the CSCI Board. Check out the press release at this link.

Jim Elliott, Vice President of Memory Marketing and Product Planning at Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. will serve as the Samsung CSCI Board representative. You can learn more about Jim on our website.

In CSCI, Samsung expects to work with other member companies to drive the increase of power efficiency for servers, notebooks, desktop computers, and a range of other equipment. We offer a big welcome to Jim and the Samsung team!

Software Applications and Power Management: your examples are great!
Last month, we talked about the sometimes contentious relationship between the software applications that make your computer useful and the power management features that can make it friendlier to your energy wallet and the environment. We asked you to send in your examples (a request reinforced below in this month's Call to Action!") and you did it.

The "offenders" span a range of software categories and types, including:
Commercial software and open source community-supported software
Applications and device drivers
Applications running on Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux distributions
CSCI won't be keeping these examples to ourselves. They'll be part of what we discuss as we engage software developers and software development organizations in the coming months.

Thanks for what you've sent in!

CALL TO ACTION!
Keep it coming: examples of sofware interference with power management
We're repeating this Call, because the specific examples you're providing add realism to the conversations we have with software developers. Are there software applications you just know are interfering with power management on your computer(s)? Do you have friends who have complained about this kind of problem? Tell us about these issues by sending a description that includes:
Name of application
Developer of application
Version/Release of application
Your Operating System and version (e.g., Windows7, OS x 10.5)
A description of what happens -- or doesn't -- when you try to use power management
If you don't know what's interfering, give us #4 and #5 with as much as you'd feel comfortable telling about the applications you generally use.
Pass this request along to your friends, or just point them to this link to our blog entry on the topic.
Send your info to george_at_climatesaverscomputing.org (change the "_at_" to "@") and CSCI's Power Management Workgroup will include your information in our discussions internally and with sofware developers. Help us to help applications and power mangement to get along!

Reminding you of our Call to Action on software interfering with power management

2011-06-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

CALL TO ACTION!
Have you seen problems between software apps and your own power management?

CSCI needs to hear your examples of software on your computer that appears to cause problems with power management. Are there software applications you just know are interfering with power management on your computer(s)? Does your monitor NEVER dim or turn off? Does your computer never go to Sleep, even though you've set it to do so? Tell us about the "software vs. power management" problems you see by sending a description that includes:

Name of application

Developer of application

Version/Release of application

Your Operating System and version (e.g., Windows7, OS x 10.5)

A description of what happens -- or doesn't -- when you try to use power management

If you don't know what's interfering, give us #4 and #5 with as much as you'd feel comfortable telling about the applications you generally use.

Send your info to george@climatesaverscomputing.org and CSCI's Power Management Workgroup will include your information in our discussions internally and especially as we engage with software developers. Help us to help applications and power management to get along!

Getting serious about how power management and software apps work together, CSCI call-for-input continues!

2011-06-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

As many of our members know, last month we announced a call for input seeking information about how software applications may be interfering with power management on PCs and networked computers. A big thank you to the many CSCI members who have offered valuable feedback. But we aren’t done yet. In fact, we’re just getting started on the next phase of addressing this important issue and your input matters more than ever.

Here’s how you can help. If you’ve experienced a software application causing a problem with how your power management performs, we want to know about it. Perhaps Flash won't let your computer suspend. Or your anti-virus program seems to keep your computer awake. Or maybe you’ve noticed that since your last software update, hibernate no longer works. Your input on these types of issues will help us to move faster on addressing both real and perceived problems.

And you don’t have to be a CSCI member to participate. We’re looking for industry-wide input so that we can build a broad perspective, with information from both individuals and organizations. Please take just a few minutes to provide us with the following information.

1. The name of the application

2. Developer of application

3. Version/Release of application

4. Your Operating System and version (e.g., Windows7, OS x 10.5)

5. A description of what happens -- or doesn't -- when you try to use power management with the application

Your feedback will be added to the input to we’ve received to-date and will allow us to identify commonalties and trends. With information in hand, we’ll move forward by inviting software developers to a July 25 face-to-face meeting in Orlando at the IEEE International Green Computing Conference (info and registration at this link). This face-to-face will take place during a round-table event where software developers will come together with CSCI power management experts to discuss the information we’ve gathered, and to collaborate on potential solutions.

So keep the e-mails based on the above points coming to george@climatesaverscomputing.org. We’ll make sure your input is included during the round-table discussions. And if you’re a software developer interested in attending the July 25 round-table at the IEEE Green Computing Conference, shoot us an e-mail at the same address and we’ll get you details on the event.

With your input, we can help ensure power management and software applications can always work together.

George O. Goodman

Executive Director, Climate Savers Computing Initiative

http://climatesaverscomputing.org/

Samsung Electronics Joins Climate Savers Computing Initiative

2011-06-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

CSCI is very pleased that Samsung is joining to help advance our mission! Below is a press release we sent out this morning announcing that Samsung has joined the Board of Directors of CSCI.
________________

Samsung Electronics Joins Climate Savers Computing Initiative

Takes CSCI leadership role to drive the next generation of energy efficient computing

PORTLAND, Ore. — June 21, 2011 — Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI), a global consortium dedicated to reducing the energy consumption of end-to-end computing, today announced that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd has become a member of the CSCI Board of Directors. Samsung Electronics joins CSCI board members from Cisco, Emerson, F5 Networks, Google, Intel, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, and World Wildlife Fund as a leader in driving the deployment and adoption of energy efficient technologies.

CSCI is addressing energy efficiency across all aspects of computing. This includes PCs, servers, networking equipment, and connected devices such as smartphones and tablets. Members work collaboratively in groups that drive improvements and best practices for AC/DC Efficiency, Networking, and Computer Power Management. Within CSCI, Samsung Electronics expects to work with other members to increase the power efficiency of servers, notebooks, and a range of other equipment.

“As a member of Climate Savers Computing Initiative, Samsung Electronics is further demonstrating its commitment to dramatically reduce the energy consumption of information technology,” said George Goodman, executive director, Climate Savers Computing Initiative. “We welcome Samsung Electronics to the CSCI Board of Directors where the company will play an important role in helping to drive a more energy efficient and sustainable future.”

With today’s news, CSCI has grown to nearly 680 members. Organizations join as Affiliates and Associates and pledge to use power management and to make high-efficiency systems a requirement for their next computer purchase. More than 10,000 people have joined as individuals by pledging to use energy efficient computers and power management at home and work. To become a member or pledge support visit http://bit.ly/dDje42

About Climate Savers Computing Initiative

CSCI works to reduce IT energy consumption by increasing the energy efficiency of computing equipment, increasing the adoption and deployment of power management, and providing education about the financial and environmental benefits of energy efficient computing. CSCI has long partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR program to accelerate the adoption of energy-saving technology and practices. The Initiative provides technical input into ENERGY STAR specifications and recommends systems that have earned the ENERGY STAR, so CSCI members and others can easily identify and procure energy efficient systems. The organization offers an online catalog of PCs, laptops, servers, power supplies and power management software that meet CSCI technical specifications for energy efficiency at http://bit.ly/ba9PDy. Visit and interact with CSCI on

the Web www.climatesaverscomputing.org,

Facebook http://on.fb.me/MJhVU,

Twitter http://twitter.com/csci_tweets (#CSCI),

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=44067&mostPopular=&trk=tyah

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Climate Savers® is a trademark or registered trademark of WWF, the international conservation organization. Used under license.

Contact:

Russ DeVeau

Email- russdeveau@comcast.net

Mobile/Text- 908-251-1549

CSCI's Newsletter for May 2011

2011-06-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

The light is coming

Apologies to my friends down under, but I'm feeling very northern hemisphere-centric; I note we're getting more and more light in our days as we march toward the Summer Solstice. From an energy consumption point-of-view, that's great since we don't need as much artificial light. While you're turning off lights, be sure to check on your computer's (and other devices) power setup, too. Are you using power management to let your system "sleep" when you're not using it? Are you turning off your wonderful gadgets when they're not in use? Check it out while the light is good.
We're heading into a relatively quiet month or two as regards conferences and such. However, CSCI's Workgroups are very busy (check out what's up, below). If your company or organization is a member at the Sponsor or Board level, all you need to is start attending Workgroup meetings to participate. If you're an Associate member, drop me a line and we'll talk.
As always, if you've suggestions or would like to provide material for a future Newsletter, please contact me!

George O. Goodman

Executive Director, CSCI

Upcoming Events

CSCI Board of Directors "2012-15 Vision" session

Meeting face-to-face at O'Hare in Chicago

on 13 June 2011.

New website design for CSCI

We're on-track to launch a new, beautiful, and
easier-to-navigate CSCI website by the end of June.

Workgroup Updates

AC-DC Workgroup: The "power supply" team has been discussing the potential for higher-efficiency targets that go beyond what we've done up to now, talking with our friends in the 80+ program.

Marketing Workgroup: We're preparing for two Roundtable venues on the topic of interactions between software apps & power management, starting work along with the Power Management WG to lock-down the structure and content. Also, we're starting planning for the roll-out of the first-generation work products from the Networking WG.

Networking Workgroup: The three subteams are moving toward complete drafts on their outputs, with the power-supply unit (PSU) team reviewing their completed draft, the Energy-Efficiency Guide group agreed on disclosure formats for networking equipment specs, and the Networking Power Management folks nearly at a first, complete set of material from which to edit down and tighten up. All three efforts are shooting for getting material to a reviewable state in the coming month.

Power Management Workgroup: The new effort for this team is content development and working out a proposed structure for the Roundtable sessions mentioned above in the Marketing WG. We want to engage software developers & architects with enough background information about the perceived conflicts between applications/drivers and power management to inform conversation and make progress while not turning a Roundtable discussion into a presentation by CSCI.

Board of Directors: The Board's June meeting will be in Chicago (hosted by Emerson Network Power) and will be a full-day session on the vision and strategies for CSCI through this decade. Do you have ideas you'd like considered? Let george@climatesaverscomputing.org know. As soon as the last membership details are buttoned-up, we'll have a new Board member joining, too.

Software Applications and Power Management: Can't we all just get along?

If you're an IT organization you've likely at least heard it; If you're a computer user, you might well have said it:

Flash won't let my computer Suspend.
My anti-virus program seems to keep my computer awake.
Ever since that last software update, Hibernate doesn't work.

...or other things along those lines. Power management on all modern computers with all up-to-date operating systems is vastly better than it was five years ago and most people can use most systems' Suspend and Hibernate features with ease and confidence. However, there are these nagging claims of software interfering with power management.

Are these stories fiction? Are there some real cases and some cases of people avoiding power management because it "didn't work back then?"

CSCI has started reaching out to software developers to have serious conversations about interactions between software and power management. Our goal is to debunk the fictional problems, shine light on the actual problems, and work across our industry to spread design and implementation practices that will put these anti-power-management forces into their own Hibernation.

And so here's where you can help.

CALL TO ACTION!
Have you seen problems between software apps and your own power management?

You saw the list of examples above, but CSCI would love to hear your own examples. Are there software applications you just know are interfering with power management on your computer(s)? Tell us about them by sending a description that includes:

Name of application
Developer of application
Version/Release of application
Your Operating System and version (e.g., Windows7, OS x 10.5)
A description of what happens -- or doesn't -- when you try to use power management

If you don't know what's interfering, give us #4 and #5 with as much as you'd feel comfortable telling about the applications you generally use.

Send your info to george@climatesaverscomputing.org and CSCI's Power Management Workgroup will include your information in our discussions internally and with sofware developers. Help us to help applications and power management to get along!

Reflections on The Uptime Institute's 2011 Symposium

2011-05-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of participating in The Uptime Institute's (UI) 2011 Symposium (http://symposium.uptimeinstitute.com/). This annual gathering has previously focused almost exclusively on issues in data center infrastructure: HVAC, power distribution, and the like. However, this year the folks at UI added a third program day with a focus on carbon and energy-efficiency issues associated with the "IT load" in the data center; that's what some of us call, "computers."

There are some solidly established data center infrastructure design and implementation best practices that will reduce energy use -- and, thus, carbon emissions -- of that infrastructure. These best practices are most often used in new, large data centers and use of them has not broadly extended down into smaller or older centers. So, there remains room for carbon and energy improvement at that level.
Data center operators and the organizations that actually run the IT equipment in the data centers are almost always in different organizations or even companies. In the case of co-location centers (where the IT organization has a Bring Your Own Servers model and effectively rents rack space & power) there is an even more tenuous connection between infrastructure and IT. This tends to result in a lack of clear motivation for the IT folk to reduce their energy use (e.g., through energy-efficient servers and adopting the power management features now appearing in servers) since they don't see the energy bills in terms of their use. Further, the data center operators have no visibility into what the IT systems are doing and, so, don't see the opportunities for improvements.
Progress made in the past decade on PC power management outside the data center is starting to find its way into the data center. When combined with techniques like server consolidation and virtualization, server power management stands ready to help achieve real reductions in data center server energy use. CSCI member company 1E was at the Symposium and talking about this topic; their "Nightwatchman Server Edition" product is one of the early entries in this move from desktop power management into the data center.
Just as is true elsewhere in the enterprise, the lack of connection between those paying the energy bills and those using the energy is blunting a potentially strong motivation for reductions in energy use. The company departments using desktop systems in office buildings have no visibility into the fact that their on-all-night computers are costing the company money; neither do the IT folk with underused or unused servers using energy and HVAC in the data center. There were a few case studies presented during the week that showed how this lack of connection and visibility can be addressed.

I was on the final panel session of the third day at the Symposium, on the topic of, "The Greening of IT." UI's Andy Lawrence moderated this discussion of "successes, failures, and the future" with Jon Haas (The Green Grid), KC Mares (Silicon Valley Leadership Group), Bruce Myatt (Critical Facilities Round Table), Pitt Turner (Uptime Institute), and yours truly for CSCI. The conversation ranged across topics I've mentioned above, but one thing seemed to be nearly universally agreed: the time has come to drive connections between the "infrastructure" and "IT" populations to make the next-level of progress in reducing energy and environmental impact from data centers.

Now comes the actual doing!

Keep your IT friends close and keep your finance friends closer

2011-04-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

I attended the Green IT and Cloud Computing 2.0 Summit this week in Washington D.C. on behalf of Climate Savers Computing, and there was an overarching theme coming from the event: It is good to be green, but it is better to be cheap. Now, that’s simplifying things considerably, so let me further explain.

The Green IT Council invited me to keynote at their second annual Green IT event where companies like Forrester, Microsoft, Intel, HP, CompTIA, CSC, CA and many others presented on technical and management-focused topics as they relate to sustainability.

My keynote “Power Management: Promises Unfulfilled,” addressed the challenges of implementing power management in the early days, or, as I fondly refer to it, pain management. The issue is once bitten, twice shy. As a result, many people still assume that power management isn’t effective. The truth is, unlike systems of the ‘90s and early ’00s when “Sleep” could mean “Die,” current generation hardware and operating systems work well and easily. I discussed in my last two blogs the steps to take to easily enable PM on your desktop or laptop.

At the show, everyone talked about and agreed that IT departments, procurers and facilities people think its great to be green and sustainable, it just isn’t a priority. The key to traction for Green IT and for sustainability to go mainstream is to get the decision-making trifecta – the CFO, the CIO/CTO and the procurement manager – to align on strategic imperatives. The short story is tie green initiatives to cost reduction. Easier said than done.

CSCI hosted an executive roundtable at the conclusion of the Green IT Summit to discuss how CFOs and CTOs can find common ground by discussing their challenges and successes in implementing PM. The discussion was interesting and enlightening, for me and for the people around the table.

All this discussion wraps up on a significant point – Earth Day – which reminds us that it is important to take a step back and see the color of green – not just greenbacks.

Please, do what you can to honor this planet of ours and remember: power management is one easy step toward that.

George Goodman

Power Management 102: Carbon

2011-04-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed in my previous "Power Management 101" entry that there was a whole section of the spreadsheet I didn't even mention: "Pounds of Carbon."

Everyone likes saving money and 101 showed how you can do just that. Beyond saving money, though is another important savings; reducing carbon emissions (e.g., from the power generated to run our computers) will help reduce the impact of global climate change. The scientific evidence of humankind's role in accelerating that change and, so, our potential role in reducing it is broad and well established.

So, how much can your use of power management on your PC actually reduce carbon emissions? Let's look at the spreadsheet again:

This means that, using the examples of my LCD Widescreen Monitor and Graphics Laptop (and assuming the average US energy cost and carbon load from electricity generation):

Instead of leaving it on with the computer turned off, just turn off a similar monitor for the eight hours you're asleep and you'll save:

US$9.01 per year in electricity cost just from this one device
104.12 pounds of CO2 emissions per year from this monitor

Instead of leaving your laptop on and Idle while you're away for means two hours each day, Suspend the laptop and avoid:

US$0.95 per year on electricity
11.01 pounds of CO2 emissions per year

Even better, Hibernate (or turn off) that nifty graphics laptop while you're off eating and save:

US$2.60 per year on your electricity bill
30.03 pounds of C02 emissions per year

If you and 99 of your online gaming friends all do the same, the combined savings add up to more than 3 tons of C02 per year!

Finally think of getting some sleep, for you and for your computing setup. Just turn off your nice external monitor and that graphically powerful gaming laptop while you get a good, healthy eight hours of sleep each night of the year. Do that and your savings are:

$US19.41 per year in reduced cost of electricity

224.26 pounds of CO2 emissions per year that never happen thanks to you.

If you and 999 of your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers all do the same then your social network will save more than 100 tons of CO2 per year!

Idle computers / Cost much, do little; change now / Sleep for big savings.

Power Management 101

2011-04-04T17:07:00.001-07:00

It can be dangerous for me to be sick. Today I was voiceless and feeling ill. And bored.

Like any bored power-management obsessed person, I did some experiments. Using a "Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor" from P3 International Corporation, I measured the power used by three of the electronic devices I had at hand: an LCD Monitor, my family's "gaming" laptop, and my personal "thin/light" laptop. The results are in the spreadsheet clip below:

The takeaways:

No surprise, for all of the devices turning them off is the best and most efficient — and most affordable — thing to do when they're not in use.
The monitor:

If you turn down the brightness on your LCD monitor, you really do save some energy (those backlights are significant electricity consumers). How bright do you need to have your monitor in the place where you use it? Brighter isn't always needed.
If the computer that drives the monitor is off or even Suspended ("Sleeping"), turn off the monitor. There is a big difference between the "Off" and "On, no input" electricity use.

The laptops:

Here's the big pitch for power management. In both the high-end gaming laptop and the more modest thin/light model, Suspend will save half or more of the electricity consumed by the same laptop sitting in an idle, awake state. If the energy and cost savings aren't compelling to you, consider the total savings when you have 10 of these (in your small business) or 10,000 of them (in your enterprise).
Even better than Suspend is Hibernate. This really is the same as being "Off," but when you start it up again your desktop and applications will be right where you left them. If you avoid turning your computer completely off, because of inconvenience then Hibernating it might just fill the bill.

How much can you save without changing what you can get done? Quite a lot, actually.

Earth Hour 2011

2011-03-24T08:41:00.001-07:00

This Saturday, March 26th, at 8:30 p.m. I will be turning off the nonessential lights in my home in celebration and support of Earth Hour 2011. In case you didn’t know, Earth Hour is a global climate awareness event organized by the World Wildlife Fund, held around the world on March 26 at 8:30 p.m. local time. Switching off your lights, and, for that matter, powering down your computers, is a symbolic effort that demonstrates your commitment to conserve energy and help the planet.

We’re so excited to celebrate Earth Hour that we decided to start early. CSCI, in affiliation with Google, Microsoft and Sony, have created the CSCI Earth Hour Twitter Giveaway!

The Giveaway is happening now through 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, and I strongly encourage you to share this with your company’s and your individual social networks to help us spread the word. And, hey, the prizes aren’t so bad either. You are eligible to win the following (except anything your company is sponsoring or giving away):

Google Android Nexus S phone (wireless phone & data service not included)
Microsoft Hohm Blue Line Innovations PowerCost Monitor®, a home energy monitoring device
SONY VAIO® ECO Series laptop, ENERGY STAR® qualified and EPEAT Gold certified

There are only three simple rules to enter:

Make a pledge to save electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through power-efficient computing.
Follow @CSCI_Tweets on Twitter.
Retweet an @CSCI_Tweets post or tell us you pledged — just sign your tweet with #CSCIEarthHour.

Winners will be chosen at random but must have completed all three steps of the entry process. Winners will be notified on Monday, March 28, via email.

I hope to see you following @CSCI_Tweets. Good luck and, as always, thank you for your support.

George G. Goodman, Executive Director

Singing an old song.

2011-03-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve hesitated to write this entry. After all, I am preaching to the choir as many CSCI Board, Sponsor, Associate and Affiliate members have all said this and ‘kicked at open doors’. I think it bears repeating, however, and I ask us all to evangelize to coworkers, friends, family, and neighbors.

Simply put - too much energy is being wasted and too much carbon is being released which can be avoided through simple power management of computers and other electronic devices. An informal and far-from-statistically-sound survey I did this past week suggests that a significant chunk of people in “IT” and a majority of non-IT folks don’t turn off their computers. It's just a habit; A habit that undermines what CSCI is about. Let's break it.

Read this, act, and share with your network of people:

1. Turn off your computer, monitor, printer…and any other peripherals when finished for the day. If a computer system is left powered on while eating dinner, watching TV, talking with family, etc. - that’s a lot o’ energy going nowhere. Its easy to automate this process too, for example, Apple computers let you schedule a time to turn off and turn back on. Of course, just shutting down and hitting On/Off switches works well too.

2. Use the power management capabilities of your computer so that those times you’re away at a meeting, on a phone call, etc. and the computer’s not being used, take advantage of a lower power use state and save energy, carbon, and money. If you’re concerned about how reliable “Suspend” and such things are, take heart in knowing that all the computer and operating system makers have worked hard in the past years to make power management solid, reliable, and usable. You can even get instructions for setting up power management on your system courtesy of CSCI at http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/learn/saving-energy-at-home/.

These very simple steps can save about US$60 per year, per computer.

To take it one step further, you can also start turning off other things in your home or office. Going on vacation? Does your wireless router really need to be on while you’re gone? Not really. Still, if you start with just one computer, you’ll being saving yourself and the planet.

Lights blazing alone / Show us opportunities / Retrain to save.

George Goodman, executive director

Lorie Wigle, president of Climate Savers Computing Initiative, makes Top 10 Women in Sustainability list

2011-02-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

Hello, fellow CSCI members.

In case you haven’t seen this already, I wanted to share that Lorie Wigle, CSCI’s own president, made PINK’s distinguished list of Top 10 Women in Sustainability! PINK is recognized by Forbes as a "Top 100 Women's Website 2010" as well as a Yahoo! "Top 10 Women's Business Site,” and it features America's most influential women in business through nationwide PINK events and Top Women Profiles.

Lorie is featured with an esteemed crowd, including female senior leaders from Coca-Cola, Turner Broadcasting, Johnson & Johnson, Hyatt, Verizon, and Ford, just to name a few of the biggest brands in the world. To see the full list, visit Little Pink Book.

PINK quotes Lorie: “As companies embrace sustainability they evolve from ‘do no harm’ to ‘doing well by doing good’ to eventually growing revenue by delivering products and services that improve sustainability.”

Congratulations to Lorie and to CSCI for its continued efforts to promote smart computing practices!

CES 2011 — Looking Back to Move Forward

2011-01-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

I’m back from the annual gathering of consumer technology providers, buyers, and hangers-on that is officially known as the Consumer Electronics Show. Put on each January in Las Vegas by the Consumer Electronics Association, CES is 1.5M square feet of exhibition floor, multiple keynotes, embedded topical conferences, showmanship, and sore feet — all in equal measure.

As Climate Savers Computing looks ahead with an eye to the CE space, it was a great opportunity to broaden awareness of the issues facing GreenIT and to talk about CSCI with potential new members. With some key support from members such as sponsor member Sony Electronics and board member Intel, we began an important dialogue with CES attendees to showcase the organization’s mission and our desire to work with CE companies the same way we have done with the PC, server, and networking industries.

As many of you know, the scope and size of CES is overwhelming in terms of content and products. There were over 20 themed areas on the show floor targeting specific audience segments; for example, the “Silvers Summit” pushed products and services aimed at the aging baby boomer population. Higher Education, Electric Vehicles, and Fitness were new Tech Zone topics of interest, and they showcase that the CE industry touches all elements of our lives.

And, while CES is expanding beyond your conventional consumer electronic device, the GreenIT exhibit, “Sustainable Planet Tech Zone,“ was still a bit underwhelming. This area was the smallest and was located in a low-volume traffic area on the show floor. A couple of companies stood out with regard to their GreenIT practices and philosophies: Panasonic had a significant portion of their large booth area dedicated to renewable energy, energy management, and electric vehicle offerings; LG was featuring the energy efficient characteristics of all their offerings from TVs to freezers; and Powermat (an inductive charging mat for handheld devices) was highlighting products that eliminate vampire power draw. Based on all of my conversations at the event, there is interest in learning more about power management and, more important, there is willingness and eagerness to engage. The good news is the door is open with some new companies and agencies to further discuss how they can participate and improve energy consumption.

All that said, I prefer to look at the glass half full — this is truly an opportunity to lead and inspire the ICT industry to engage in smart computing practices, change behaviors toward power management, and ultimately work together to address larger computer and sustainability issues.

Onward!

George O. Goodman, ED for CSCI

Good planets are hard to come by

2010-12-30T06:39:00.001-08:00

As everyone begins to set New Year’s resolutions for 2011, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and make some resolutions of my own and on behalf of Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

I joined CSCI in November with the goal of setting forth strategies that can really influence behavior change in smart computing practices. The greening of IT needs to be more than a buzzword; it needs to be a call to action in 2011. We have reached a critical time for changing behavior around PC power management - not just in our industry, but also in ourselves. Climate Savers Computing is built on the belief that individuals have the power to make a difference through practicing better computing habits.

According to the Global Footprint Network, humanity currently uses the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide resources and absorb waste. In other words, it takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year. If population and consumption trends continue to grow at their current pace, we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us by 2040. As poignantly stated by an oft-cited but un-identified author, ”Take care of the earth and she will take care of you.”

We all know that our industry contributes to the use of these global resources. As of 2007, ICT was responsible for 2 percent of global carbon emissions. As global demand grows, so too will the number of devices and the amount of data required to keep those devices connected. If left unchecked, this situation will lead to exponential increases in energy and carbon emissions, on the order of 6 percent annually. The bottom line: by 2020, the global ICT industry will be emitting almost twice as much as it did in 2007.

Aside from the dire predictions, there is still a silver lining; research estimates that the implementation of ICT can contribute to a 15 percent reduction in carbon emissions for all industries through energy and productivity efficiencies. From our domain of ICT we can reach beyond the 2% and help reduce the 98%.

It goes without saying how important our efforts are, and we all can be agents of change and leadership for smart computing practices. We do have the power to make a difference. Please join me in pledging to power down, eliminate waste and promote smart computing practices. Pledge your support now.

Cheers to a fantastic and greener 2011!

Climate Savers Computing Power Management System Design Guide

2010-02-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

By Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

Climate Savers Computing is built on the commitment and collaboration of industry leaders to further energy-efficient computing. Following that premise, this week we released the CSCI Power Management Systems Design Guide developed by our Power Management Workgroup. The new guide addresses general design principles for making power management faster and more reliable.

Climate Savers Computing Power Management Workgroup members that collaborated to create the computer power management standards design guide include Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, LSI, Lenovo and Microsoft. The purpose of the document is to call attention to specific reliability challenges of sleep state standby (S3) technology and offer instructions on how to build energy-efficient, power-managed client platforms that will result in a positive user experience.

The Power Management Systems Design Guide identifies and removes obstacles to the adoption of power management in the desktop and notebook computer marketplace. Technical barriers addressed in the document include networking protocol and hardware and software latencies that adhere to the forthcoming Ecma Network Proxy Standard.

The design guidelines are recommended by Climate Savers Computing to make power management faster by improving a computer’s Sleep reliability and reducing latencies during Sleep and Resume cycles. Specific areas addressed in the Power Management Systems Design Guide include:

S3 User Experience, Wake Mode and Latency

System Recommendations for S3 Reliability

Windows Logo Program Overview

Network Proxy Ecma TC38-TG4 Standard (formerly TC32-TG21)

ENERGY STAR v5.0

General Design Principles for S3 Associated Hardware

System Manufacturer Recommendations

Implementing Power Management for USB Devices

Reliability Testing and Tools for S3

Power management is one, and arguably the most promising, of the available PC energy conservation strategies. The Power Management Systems Design Guide, created by the industry’s leaders, is an exciting step toward significantly reducing computing energy consumption, thereby reducing a company’s IT costs and reducing its carbon footprint.

NBC’s Green Week Includes Focus on Energy-Efficient Computing

2009-11-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

By Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

This week is NBC’s Green Week, part of the TV network’s Green Is Universal program. Climate Savers Computing commends NBC for helping to raise awareness about the importance of energy-efficient computing.

Climate Savers Computing is built on the belief that individuals have the power to make a difference through practicing better computing habits. We provide three steps to go green as well as recommend following these power management settings to improve the power efficiency of your PC:

• Monitor/display sleep: Turn off after 15 minutes or less
• Turn off hard drives/hard disk sleep: 15 minutes or less
• System standby/sleep: After 30 minutes or less

NBC helped bring attention to energy-efficient computing this week by highlighting it in a Today show segment that appears below.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

During Green Week (November 15-22, 2009) NBC Universal is asking its viewers to pledge to make one small change to help the environment. These pledges will be tracked across all its Web sites, and for each pledge, NBC Universal will make a $1 donation to the FEED foundation.

You can also join the Climate Savers Computing mission by pledging your support to use power management and by selecting an energy-efficient computer for your future PC purchase.

You have the power to make a difference.

Climate Savers Computing Participates in “Unpower Yourself” Campaign

2009-11-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

By Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

This week TechSoup Global launched the “Unpower Yourself” campaign to encourage nonprofit workers to reduce power use in the workplace. The environmental initiative takes place for the next three weeks and offers easy energy saving tips. Climate Savers Computing is excited to partner with TechSoup Global in this important campaign.

The campaign will feature energy saving tips through the TechSoup Web site and social networking sites. Each of the energy saving ideas will include resources on how to take immediate action. It also includes complimentary Webinars about power management, a discussion forum and a contest with a grand prize of a one-hour phone consultation with a TechSoup expert.

 Climate Savers Computing encourages organizations both large and small to rally together to support energy conservation through smart computing practices like setting power management, using energy efficient computers and unplugging your computers.

You can follow the Unpower Yourself campaign at:
TechSoup blog
Twitter
Facebook  

Green IT - Getting up to Speed

2009-10-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

By Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

For those of us in the green IT space, it’s important to sometimes stop and remember that not everyone lives and breathes energy-efficiency the way we do, and that for some organizations, “going green” can seem a daunting task. So I was encouraged to see a report last week co-authored by Forrester analyst and Climate Savers Computing friend Doug Washburn: “The Value Of A Green IT Maturity Assessment,” which provides a step-by-step guide for those organizations looking to get up to speed with green IT.

Here’s a brief introduction:

“CIOs recognize the importance of environmental considerations in planning IT operations, but they are often unsure about how to put that recognition into action. With sustainability rising on the corporate agenda, and the cost, risk, and revenue benefits of green IT becoming more visible than ever, now is the time for CIOs to create and execute on a coherent, comprehensive green IT initiative. The crucial first step is assessment — understanding the state of green IT policies and practices within your organization.“

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. As GreenerComputing points out, the Forrester report also lists five results a CIO can get from a maturity assessment:

Find low-hanging fruit.

Judge what’s possible.

Prioritize the next round of activities.

Communicate the IT organizational progress, or lack thereof.

Build the business case for longer-term initiatives.

Bottom line: A green IT maturity test can provide the initial map you need on the road to higher energy efficiencies, reduced costs and waste and more sustainable computing. Do you know where your organization stands?

Utility Opportunities in IT Energy-Efficiency

2009-10-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

By Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

This week Climate Savers Computing joined with other industry, government and academic leaders to offer an educational Webinar about utility opportunities in IT energy-efficiency. We’re seeing a lot of progress and successes with public-private partnerships, as recent research shows that 92 percent of today’s IT purchases consider utility incentives and rebates a significant factor in IT purchasing. The Webinar enabled stakeholders to join together to talk about effective utility incentives and rebates to reduce energy consumption involving IT hardware.  

If you missed the Webinar, you can access the audio recording, presentations and research paper here.

  Highlights include:

The future of IT is energy-efficient: Notable IT visionary Professor Jon Koomey from Yale University talked about why computers are capable of improving their energy-efficiency more rapidly than other types of electrical equipment. Recent research points toward continuing rapid reductions in the size and power use of computers, particularly mobile computers.

Cost savings are significant: Andrew Fanara of the EPA’s ENERGY STAR program said new Energy Star 5.0 PCs that use computer power management yield an annual savings of $71 per PC (assuming the national average commercial rate $ 0.11 / kWh) and up to $116 per PC (assuming the NE residential average rate $ 0.18 / kWh) compared to an old PC that does not use computer power management and is left on at night.

Leveraging IT to eliminate waste: Intel’s John Skinner pointed out that 73 percent of savings potential from energy use in the data center comes from IT equipment improvements. Other impressive stats highlighted include: Replacing a 4-year-old, relatively inefficient servers with new servers reduces energy costs approximately 92 percent, and replacing a typical 4-year-old desktop PC with a new power-managed desktop would reduce energy consumption by 786 kWh per year (from 1015 kWh/year to 229 kWh/year).

 In today’s economic climate, savvy businesses are doing what they can to save money, eliminate waste and prepare for the future. IT energy-efficiency is a smart and effective tool to do just that.

Small Individual Efforts Can Yield Global Change

2009-10-15T14:54:00.001-07:00

By Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

Climate Savers Computing is built on the belief that individual actions taken across the world by businesses, organizations and consumers to increase the use of high-efficiency computer systems and power management technologies can have a significant impact on reducing energy consumption and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Our organization is dedicated to reducing the energy consumption of computers and limiting the environmental impact of new and emerging technologies, which is why we a chose to participate in Blog Action Day.

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers to post about the same issue on the same day, with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. This year, the topic is Climate Change, which has obvious direct ties to the mission of Climate Savers Computing. It is expected that Blog Action Day 2009 will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the Web.

Climate Savers Computing is eagerly anticipating the United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 to see how the world’s leaders will unite to form a unified position and adopt actions to counter climate change. Climate Savers Computing and many of its members will be in attendance for this important conference because of its direct alignment with our mission: to reduce computers’ power consumption by 50 percent, which could result in a reduction of global CO2 emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons per year.

Two simple ways you can support the mission of Climate Savers Computing is to take the Climate Savers Computing Pledge and follow our recommended three ways to go green to be a leader in energy-efficient computing. Your individual actions will make you part of a larger movement that can help change the world.

Update on the Climate Savers Computing India Chapter

2009-09-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

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.

New Blog, New Year, New Members

2009-07-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

by Pat Tiernan, Executive Director
Climate Savers Computing Initiative

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll notice that we’ve expanded our blog to provide more insights, voices and discussions about sustainable IT, efficient computing and smart practices like power management. If you’re new, welcome and I hope you’ll continue to engage with us on this forum. By enhancing the dialogue about the role of greener IT in addressing emissions and energy waste, I wanted this space to include conversations from the industry, environmental groups, students, policymakers and green media. This blog will, and should be, about getting our message out there, while providing different perspectives and ideas to our readers.

It should not go without saying that we just crossed our two year milestone. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative was founded in June of 2007, meaning we’re now two years old! As our president, Lorie Wigle, said here last year on our one year anniversary, the relevance of our mission has never been higher. The need for greater energy efficiency around the world continues to accelerate. I’m pleased that as this mission has become more widely recognized, we’ve grown Climate Savers Computing to nearly 500 member companies and organizations. I hope that this next year we’ll continue see that number grow.

In addition to the launch of this new blog, we’re also officially entering the world of 2.0 communications with the launch of our Twitter feed. News, tips, events and other “tweets” about our efforts can be followed at @CSCI_Tweets. Add us to your list and share this with your networks.

I hope that you’ll continue to read and engage with us here. We’re interested in hearing from you on topics and trends that you’re watching. Stay tuned – there’s more to come.

Pat