[November 04, 2009] Unpowering Computers Could Save Nonprofits Millions of Dollars Tweet SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 04, 2009 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- TechSoup Global, in partnership with Climate Savers Computing Initiative, today launches its "Unpower Yourself" campaign to encourage nonprofit workers to reduce power use in the workplace. The environmental action takes place over three weeks and offers easy energy saving tips. By enabling the sleep settings on just one computer you use, you'll save about 60 dollars every year in electricity costs. Minor changes in the workplace can result in major reductions in power usage for nonprofits: If just one in five of the 300,000 people who visit TechSoup.org each month enable their sleep settings, it would save nonprofits and NGOs more than $3.6 million. It would also result in CO2 reduction equivalent to taking more than 5200 cars off the road. "Small changes in everyday behavior can really help reduce energy use," said Brett Goodwin, VP of Marketing at Verdiem. "Using freely downloadable PC tools like Edison from Verdiem makes setting power management on your individual computer easy and will help nonprofits around the world save energy - at no cost whatsoever. Having the ability to measure, monitor, and manage energy use makes it easy - and rewarding - to conserve." Five Things in Five Minutes to Unpower Yourself: --Set power management settings on computers to sleep at 15 minutes of non-use. --Turn off your computer at the power strip at night. --Use a smart, energy saving power strip. --Buy Energy Star- or Gold- or Silver EPEAT-certified hardware. --Share these action items on how to save energy with five colleagues. During the next three weeks, energy saving tips will be shared through TechSoup.org and social networking sites. Each of the energy saving ideas will include resources on how to take immediate action. "Computer power management is a simple and cost-effective tool to reduce energy consumption, freeing capital to be spent to further nonprofit goals rather than on overhead," according to Pat Tiernan, executive director of Climate Savers Computing Initiative, an international nonprofit organization committed to reducing the energy consumption of computers. "Climate Savers Computing encourages organizations both large and small to rally together to support energy conservation through smart computing practices like setting power management, using energy efficient computers, and unplugging your computers." The campaign includes complimentary webinars about power management, a discussion forum, and a contest with a grand prize of a one-hour phone consultation with a TechSoup expert. The campaign can be followed on the TechSoup blog (http://blog.techsoup.org/node/1034), Twitter (@TSGreenTech hashtag #unpower), Facebook (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/126156?m=fe36ee64&recruiter_id=20715660 ), and by visiting http://www.techsoup.org/greentech/energy . About TechSoup Global San Francisco-based TechSoup Global (http://www.techsoupglobal.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides technology information to individuals and organizations in more than 190 countries, has provided consulting services in more than 50 countries and, through its global network of capacity-building NGOs, manages product donations to more than 107,000 organizations in 31 countries. The product donations program has enabled organizations to save over $1.5 billion in expenses as of September 2009. TechSoup Global continues to innovate with a goal of bringing increased resources and capacity to organizations working diligently on their social missions. TechSoup Global has a network of 40 corporate donor partners including Microsoft, Cisco, Sun, and Symantec. About Climate Savers Computing Initiative The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is a nonprofit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses, and conservation organizations dedicated to reducing the energy consumption of computers. More than 500 companies and organizations have joined the initiative since its launch in June 2007, and thousands of individuals have pledged their support. The initiative is led by CSC, Dell, Google, HP, Intel, Microsoft and World Wildlife Fund. Sponsors include 1E, Acer Inc., Faronics, Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi Ltd., Lenovo, NEC Corporation, Symantec, and Verdiem Corporation. - - - - ((AScribe - The Public Interest Newswire / http://www.ascribe.org)) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]