Technology

DorobekInsider: Power IT Down Day – help Mother Earth (and Wounded Warriors) by turning off your computer tonight

Today is Power IT Down Day — the second annual event that hopes to get all of us to turn our PCs and laptops off overnight when all they do is soak up pow...

Federal News Network Staff

August 27, 2009 1:52 pm

2 min read

Today is Power IT Down Day — the second annual event that hopes to get all of us to turn our PCs and laptops off overnight when all they do is soak up power for no reason.

Earlier on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris, we spoke to Nigel Ballard, director of federal marketing at Intel Americas and one of the companies sponsoring the event. You can hear that conversation here.

We should also note that the companies — Citrix, HP, Microsoft, Intel and the Professional Services Council — are taking the money that people would save tonight and donating it to the Wounded Warrior Project, which works to “raise awareness and enlist the public’s aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women… help severely injured service members aid and assist each other, and… provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of severely injured service members.”

Here is the release that the groups put out:

Today, Aug. 27, is Power IT Down Day, an initiative through which Citrix, HP, Microsoft, Intel and the Professional Services Council encourage government and industry to show their commitment to responsible energy usage.

You can learn more about it, and sign up to participate, by visiting this site: www.hp.com/go/poweritdown.

Simply put, we’re asking that government and industry shut down their computers, printers and peripherals at the end of the work day today. As of this morning, more than 4,400 people have pledged to join Power IT Down Day. To illustrate how important this issue is, keep in mind:

* Last year, over 2,800 individuals signed up for the inaugural Power IT Down Day.
* The 4,400 people who pledged to Power IT Down this year represent over 57,000 kilowatt hours saved. This equates to more than $5,700 dollars saved in just one night.
* Imagine if just these 4,400 individuals powered IT down for a whole year. That’s a savings of more than $2M.
* Now imagine if one percent of the country’s 1.8 million civilian government employees powered it down for one year.

Saving government and environmental resources is not just in the imagination any more. It’s real and it’s concrete and it can be done.

And, to represent how the money saved from powering IT down could be put to good use, the Power IT Down Day partners will donate more than $20,000 to Wounded Warrior Project, a group that represents those brave Americans who sacrificed so much.

You can sign up for Power IT Down Day here.

Other press converge of Power IT Down Day from…

the Wounded Warrior Project

Also from:

Federal Computer Week
Signal magazine
GovernmentTechnology
FedScoop
NetworkWorld
Government Computer News