Companies Launch Campaign To Cut Power Use Of Personal Computers

Microsoft is helping lead a global initiative to install energy-saving software on the world’s estimated 1 billion personal computers, which currently consume huge amounts of electricity. The software giant is collaborating with the Climate Savers Computing Initiative and a start-up, Verdiem, to offer a free download of an energy-saving program for PCs called Edison. PCs are responsible for 40 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions from information technology and telecommunications, and experts estimate that half of all electricity consumed by a PC is wasted; Edison enables a computer to quickly enter a “deep sleep” mode that uses just five percent of normal energy consumption. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative has set a goal of annually reducing PC carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to 11 million cars by 2010. The Edison software can be downloaded at verdiem.com or climatesaverscomputing.org.