New Efficiency Goals Set by Climate Savers Computing Initiative

Published: June 13, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft this week joined dozens of other top tech companies and competitors in the creation of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a new organization dedicated to making PCs and servers more energy efficient and, hopefully, better for the environment.

Microsoft was joined by Intel, Google, IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and about 35 other technology vendors in founding the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The group and its goals are modeled after the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program.

The group's initial goal is to encourage computer and component manufacturers to build products that meet or surpass the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star guidelines for energy efficiency. In the coming years, the group will tighten its energy efficiency guidelines, surpassing the EPA's EnergyStar guideline with more stringent ones.

For example, 2007 Energy Star specifications require that PC power supplies meet at least 80 percent minimum efficiency, the group says. The initiative would require a minimum of 90 percent by 2010. Similarly, guidelines for 1U and 2U single-socket and dual-socket servers will increase from meeting 85 percent of the minimum guidelines in 2007 to 92 percent efficiency by 2010.

Real good can come out of this program, the group says. "Today, the average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power," said Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of operations at Google, and a Google Fellow. "The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year--and save more than $5.5 billion in energy costs."

Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group, put it into different terms. "By 2010, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative will cut greenhouse gas emissions in an amount equal to removing more than 11 million cars from the road or shutting down 20 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants -- a significant step in reducing the emissions affecting our planet," Gelsinger says.

Microsoft's representative on the initiative is Michael Rawding, vice president for special projects in Microsoft's corporate affairs office. "Working together through the Climate Savers program is one important way that competitors and partners alike can, through technology, address this important issue," he says.

For more information on the Climate Saver's Computing Initiative, see its Web site at www.climatesaverscomputing.org.

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