in Sydney today at 10am.
" showing that turning computers off may be an easier approach than others to energy saving. He then introduced the advisors to the campaign, including myself. He then talked about his inspiration for the campaign, when he stayed in North Sydney during the Earth Hour initiative to turn off Sydney lights and being in the USA during Al Gore's "Unfortunate Truth".
Mark claimed this is the first Green IT labelling initiative (at least until someone pointed out an earlier one). To participate, organisations are required to meet program guidelines and code of practice. Companies are required to have virtulaisationor other power management software. Organisations will be listed on the Computers Off web site and selected at random to be audited, to ensure they are complying.
Idris Sulaiman, the CEO of Computers Off, the talked about the relevance of the campaign to the ICT sector in Australia, including the coming reporting requirements by government (starting tomorrow). He mentioned the will be a global launch on world environment day. One point he made that previously ice was predicted to melt at the North Pole in 2080, but now the prediction is 2018. A recent ITU report launched in London recently estimated ICT at 2.5 to 3% of the total CO2 emissions (only for computer use not counting embedded energy from making the computers). He suggested that the ICT government review could consider energy efficient measures. He pointed out that beyond simply setting screen savers, power management software can implement and monitor more sophisticated power manage functions.
Richard Collins, consultant to the federal government's energy efficiency team, pointed out that Australian governments regulate energy sue, but not computers. He showed projects that if action is not taken, computers will be come an increasingly significant proportion of home energy use. He told an anecdote of visiting a company to talk on energy use and found that the computer staff had locked out the energy saving settings on all the company's computers. MEPS in October 2009.
A media release was distributed at the launch (copy appended) and the slide presentaiton (text only appended):
For immediate release
MEDIA RELEASE
** Pictures available on request **
Computers Off Australia’ Campaign & Labelling initiative launched to encourage Australians to save the environment… one computer at a time!
SYDNEY – Monday 30 June, 2008 – Australians can now make a real, tangible and ‘easy’ difference to our environment – on a national and global scale – by turning off their computers when not in use. The not-for-profit ‘Computers Off Australia’ campaign and labelling initiative, officially launched today in Sydney, Australia, has been developed to encourage Australians to implement power management practices on their computers – at home and in the workplace - and in doing so, save carbon emissions and our planet!
According to Mark Winter, Founder of Computers Off Australia, “I realised about seven months ago when I told my two youngest children that we were going to wash the car and they got into the car, ready to drive to the carwash rather than grab a bucket and sponge as I would have done when I was a kid, that the world is a very different place today.”
“Moreover, it really hit home to me that if we don’t start making a difference now, in every seemingly ‘little’ way we can, our children are going to have an even bigger problem with the environment than we have today.”
“ Soon after, I read in a Gartner report that the ICT industry accounts for approximately 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to the emissions of the aviation industry. I knew then where I could start… and the idea for Computers Off Australia was born,” he added.
The objectives of the ‘Computers Off’ campaign are to form part of a new development of practical programs being offered by the Information and Communication Technology industry to improve energy efficiency and deal with global climate change. This initiative also supports an industry-wide target to achieve a 50 per cent improvement in Australia’s and global computer energy efficiency by 2010.
The Computers off ‘label’ has been created to act as the computer industry’s guide to help individuals, business and government quickly and easily identify those organisations that are doing their part to reduce their power consumption and are in turn reducing their CO 2 emissions.
Industry associations including the (AIIA) Australia Information Industry Association and the (ACS) Australian Computers have provided their endorsements and support behind this campaign and labelling initiative.
“ The opportunity for us here in Australia is to lead by example and show the rest of the world that we can achieve something that we probably didn't think possible. By coming together and turning our computers off when they are not being used, not only can we can make a real difference, we can leave our children’s children with a habitable planet. Then, our plan is to take this initiative to the rest of the globe,” Mr Winter concluded.
Check out the Computers Off commercials – www.youtube.com/computersoff
Come on Australia, start turning your computers off when not in use
and implement new ways to save energy and the environment!
-ends-
For media information or a media interview with Mark Winter, Founder of ‘Computers Off Australia’, please contact:
Kerryn Nelson
Managing Director
Big Mouth Marketing Communications P/L
Ph: + 61 3 9558 3122 E: kerryn.nelson(a)bigmouth.net.au
Did you know?
People don’t generally leave their televisions on all day while they are at work or away on holidays,
yet across Australia, millions of work computers are on all night – wasting energy, costing businesses, places of learning and the government over one billion dollars in electric generation costs and contributing to global climate change.
According to a Gartner Report, the global Information and Communications Technology industry (ICT) accounts for approximately 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to the emissions of the aviation industry.
According to a recent report by the Department of Environment and Water Heritage , there are now more than 16 million PCs within government departments, institutions and businesses and approximately 8 million PC in Australian homes.
If Australian home users, businesses and the government start to turn of their computers when they are not in use and implement automated power management, they will collectively save in excess of $1.3 billion ($1,332,407,232) per annum and we will reduce our carbon emissions by 7,938,926 tonnes per annum!
This is equivalent to taking 1,373,517 cars off the road, planting 2,165,260 trees and 8,882,715 homes that would be lit for a year with the energy saved by power management (at 12c electricity cost per kWh).
How BIG an impact can you make by turning off your computer?
By turning off your computer each night when you leave work for a year you will help save as much energy as it takes:
to run a clock radio for 1,392 weeks
to make 9,280 bags of microwave popcorn
to wash 464 loads of washing
to use your blow dryer for 5,568 hours
to vacuum for 464 hours
to produce 3,480 plastic bags
to run your microwave 24 hours a day for a week
to boil your kettle for 24 hours a day for 268 days
By turning off your computer tonight when you leave work you will save as much energy as it takes:
to run a clock radio for over 3 weeks
to make over 20 bags of microwave popcorn
to wash over 1 load of washing
to blow dry your hair over 12 times
to vacuum for over 1 hour
to light a 100 watt light bulb for over 10 hours
By turning your computer off tonight when you leave work will save approximately 100kgs of coal from being used - that’s a saving of over about 120kgs of CO 2 emissions.
What is the ‘Computers Off Australia’ Campaign and Labelling Initiative?
The objectives of the ‘Computers Off’ campaign and labelling initiative are a part of a new development of practical programs being offered by the Information and Communication Technology industry to improve energy efficiency and deal with global climate change.
The Computers Off campaign is a simple, yet important initiative which is designed to educate business, government and home users about how we can all help reduce Australia’s carbon footprint by implementing power management practices on our work and home computers.
The Computers off ‘label’ has been created as the computer industry’s guide to help business, government and individuals quickly and easily identify organisations that are doing their part to reduce their power consumption and in turn reducing their CO 2 emissions.
To find out more about how you can get involved, visit www.computersoff.org
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The Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner handed the Australian Crime Commission their three Green IT certifications from Computers Off this morning at the ACC headquarters in Canberra. The ACC are the first organisation to receive all three certifications.
