Need a New Year’s Resolution? Go Green!

I’ve made it a point in recent years to not lose track of my New Year’s resolutions from the previous January, so I can look back at them in December. And while this may not be the forum to discuss how successful I was in cleaning up our basement, I am proud to report that my goal of conserving energy in my house by shutting down electronics at night has been a success.

And I’m also happy to report that some government employees are doing the same. As a part of our recent survey of government IT employees to gather their opinions on social media and Gov 2.0 tools, we also asked them their thoughts on energy efficiency and what kind of practices the follow in their own agencies. The results showed us that 39 percent of government IT employees who responded turn their computers off nearly every night of the week, while only 10 percent say they never shutdown their computers.

Here are some of the other interesting results of the survey:

• Less than half of all respondents believe that energy efficient computing is a trend that will fade out over time, and over 70% believe that energy efficiency is one of their agency’s key initiatives
• 77% agreed they know what technical specifications to look for in energy efficient PC, while 72% said their management is supportive of energy efficient PC purchases.

As we demonstrated earlier in the year on Power IT Down Day, there are incredible financial and environmental benefits that can be realized for all of us by shutting down our computers for the night. This summer’s Power IT Down Day saw 17,639 people pledge to shut down their technology for the weekend to support the Wounded Warrior Project. My hope is that in 2011 we can reduce the percentage even further of employees who never shut down their computers, and convince those who did shut down that they can compound their savings by committing to shutting down each and every day.

The push to go green clearly goes beyond just turning off computers and technology at night, however. At HP, we’ve just wrapped up a project as the official technology provider to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun. HP estimates that by avoiding car and air travel through the use of HP visual collaboration solutions, an estimated 226 metric tons of CO2 can be saved annually per solution. And while Cancun is obviously a desirable destination to hold a conference, many conference goers have realized that they can link virtually to the conference and do their part to conserve at the same time. And for the folks who did make the trip to Cancun, we made sure to minimize their impact by equipping the conference with EPEAT Gold notebook and desktop PCs, ENERGY STAR® printers and other low-carbon solutions.

So – if you are looking for a resolution for 2011, add going green to your list! Lastly, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone very happy holidays and a happy new year!