Monday, Dec. 06, 2010

Green IT

Computers seem so clean, don't they, just sitting there and humming, without any noxious emissions? But of course computers need power, and right now most of our power comes from fossil fuels. Computers and IT are now a small but rapidly growing source of carbon — about 2% of global emissions, a figure that could easily double within a decade.

That's where green IT comes in. Whether it's more energy-efficient laptops and server farms, or software that automatically powers down our desktops when they're not being used, there are ways to curb the IT sector's energy hunger ways without losing performance. Software like Granola, for example, can run in the background of your operating system and tune up your computer's own energy-saving hardware, ensuring you're not wasting volts unnecessarily. There's no reason you can't get all the computing power you need without wasting power.