Universities Power Down, Videos Fire Up

There are two basic facts that keep the Climate Savers Computing team marching forward each day: The average desktop PC in use today wastes nearly half the power it pulls from the wall – and there are currently over 1 billion PCs in deployment globally and 2.25 billion expected by 2015.

These realities have us focusing on the world of higher education through April as we challenge students, faculty and staff across the globe to Power Down for the Planet.

Colleges and universities around the world have been asked to make a dent in climate impact by powering down campus computers. In collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program we are educating and engaging college students on a large scale about their computer power consumption and how that affects the environment.

Why the focus on this population? College students in the U.S. alone can collectively make a one million-ton reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by better managing their computers.

Who has stepped up for the challenge to date? Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, University of California at San Diego, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, University of Maine, University of Maryland and California State University, Chico.

One winning university will be selected based on the highest percentage of on-campus staff, student and faculty pledges toward use of computer power management tools.

But, in addition to a winning university (and a winning planet) we’ll have some additional winners – provided they can tell a big story on the small screen.

Our Power Down for the Planet video contest challenges participants to develop original and creative videos that educate, entertain, and/or inform others about the importance of energy efficient computing to the global environment.

Winners will be on the receiving end of cold, hard cash, as well as up to five 2009 Globe Vienna 1 bikes powered by Specialized, HP TouchSmart tx2z laptops and Microsoft Expression Studio software. Submissions are open until April 17.