HP’s Power to Change Campaign

Posted on 11 June 2009, at 9:56 am, by Judie Lipsett

When people talk about doing things for the environment, a lot of times they mention driving a more fuel efficient vehicle or recycling, but there are other things that can be done which don’t necessarily require much effort and could actually save money. One of those things is simply shutting down the computers in your home office at the end of the day.

According to HP, “only 36% of business desktop users turn off at the end of the work day.” If “100,000 users remembered to turn off their computers at the end of the day, we could potentially save more than 2.680 kilowatt hours of energy. That is like reducing an estimated 3,542 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every day, or taking an estimated 2,140 cars off the road in a month!”

HP has started a Power to Change Campaign to help people “become more aware of their own personal impact on the environment and how they can minimize it for the better. ”

One of the key features of the campaign is a “widget that users can download on their work or home computers to remind them to turn them off when they are done for the day. The widget tracks idle time when the PC is turned on but not being used and records whether it is switched off each day. Using that data the widget estimates the potential amount of energy saved and the amount of carbon emissions reduced, both by the user and on a global basis.”

You can get your widget and learn more about the Power to Change campaign here; you can also learn read more green news and tips at HP’s Power to Change blog.