Blackle

Blackle is the energy saving version of Google. Our technology emits as much CO2 as our airline industry. Computers, however, can help us save CO2 by allowing us to have local and global video conferencing and webinars. Those sorts of online activities have real potential to save CO2 emissions in a big way. The best thing you can do is run your computer with a black background…but I don’t think we’ll be doing that because most of us are attached to our decorated desktops. So what can we do? Use Blackle. Use power surge boards with separate switches so we can turn off what we are not using by way of equipment. We can use LCD flat screen monitors which use less than half the energy of CSR. We can look up the manufacturer’s energy rating of computers when we buy one. We can go into the power settings of our computer and make sure it shuts down – 15mins for the screen, 30 mins for the hard drive. My new desktop already does that for me so manufacturers are becoming aware we are green and want to be, so we need to keep reminding them. Screen savers do not save energy. They use it. So just set the computer to shut down or have no screen saver.To look get a good look at some of the issues, tips and costs go to Saving Electricity and Pays to Live Green. For Macs go here. If you run XP or Vista you can download the free Edison Software from Verdiem which will monitor your power consumption. There is a lot you can do to save energy and laptops on the whole save more than desktops , but again, you need to check the manufacturer’s details.