Are You Up To “Power IT Down”?
August 25th, 2009 by Allison Kulage
Let’s face it, we’re all trying to save a buck these days, and when an effort to “Go Green” helps you save a little green in the process, that’s a good thing. Are you truly concerned with the conservation and improvement of our environment? Do you recycle, drive a hybrid car, or try to purchase products made from recycled materials? Do you chant the mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”? You may participate in some of these activities that help you go green. But here’s something you might not have considered: do you shut off your computer, printer, and monitors at night when you leave the office? Did you know that you can save $500-$600 a year on average by powering down your computer between 5pm and 8am every day?*
Citrix, HP, Intel and Microsoft are sponsoring an event this Thursday, August 27th, called “Power IT Down Day”. “The objective for the day is to raise awareness of what individual consumers of IT can do to impact green IT initiatives, whether in government or private industry,” says Tom Simmons of Citrix Federal. So on Thursday, when you leave the office, will YOU power IT down?
Here at Upright Communications, we take care to keep green initiatives in mind. We print on recycled paper, and only print when absolutely necessary. You may have noticed a little note in our email signatures, suggesting to the recipient to “only print if you need to”. The internet has allowed us the flexibility to telecommute and save on gas and emissions, thereby reducing our carbon footprint. We are fortunate to work in an office with lots of natural light too, so we use less artificial light, and our plants look amazing too by the way.
But one challenge that the Power IT Down Day has brought to light is the fact that when we telecommute, it’s necessary to leave our machine at the office running overnight… or is it? This exposes a very real question: what if you have to leave your computer on overnight so you can connect remotely when you are out of the office? Well, there are still ways that you can reduce your energy usage and still have an impact. Consider turning off your monitor, or your printer. You don’t need a monitor running at the office for the remote connection to work. And when you’ve finished your work for the day, why not shut your computer down remotely? You can always turn it on the next day or have someone at the office hit the power button for you.
Aside from the energy savings that you’ll enjoy, you will also be reducing the risk of hackers to your system, and you will be increasing the life of your computer or printer by leaving it off for more than 8 hours at a time.
Anyone interested can participate in the 2009 Power IT Down Day, and we encourage you to join us by registering here. We thank you, and our planet thanks you.
*Based on statement from the vendors involved in Power IT Down Day who claim it saves an average of 13 kilowatt hours of electricity per person per evening if employees shut down their CPUs, monitors and printers from 5 p.m. until 8 a.m. the next day, at an average of $0.12 per kWh.
