Power IT Down Day + Call To Action To Create Greener Products

Yesterday I recorded a podcast about Power IT Down Day. I'll be posting the podcast to my Network World Converging On Microsoft Podcast first part of next week. Power IT Down Day is an initiative set up by Citrix, HP and Intel, to get everyone to fully power down their desktop and laptop computers, and associated monitor, printers, powered speakers, etc. during the off work hours on August 27th. I say fully power down because even hitting the power button on monitors and laptops, for example, doesn't mean they aren't sucking up juice through their standby modes and transformers. Better yet, power it all down, by hitting the power switch on the power strip plugged into the wall.

The idea behind Power IT Down Day is to help all of us be aware, and also to try and start some behavior changes, to save electricity consumed by our individual computers while we're not working at our desks.  According to my podcast guest Tom Simmons, area Vice President Federal at Citrix, many are projecting we could see electric power costs soar in the future similarly to how gas prices skyrocketed this summer. California already suffers rolling brown outs and a lack of power for data centers. The seemingly unlimited low cost power we take for granted today, like the low cost gasoline of the past, could become a scarce and expensive resource in the future.

I'll save some of the specifics behind the program for the coming podcast, but until then please visit http://www.hp.com/go/poweritdown and sign up for the program. Based on the estimated power savings from powered down PCs at participating companies, Citrix, HP and Intel will donate an approximated savings amount the Red Cross. (Personally I wish they were donating the money to help us build more wind farms, or create hydrogen powered cars and fueling stations in the U.S.) I think this is a great program and I hope you'll participate.

Power IT Down Day is a socially conscious conservation effort: Help users, through their company's participation, understand the impact of needlessly leaving computers running during off work hours. That's good stuff, and well worth doing. I hope we change some habits and conserve power as a result. I've already started changing some of my power munching habits just after hearing about the program. But, I think we should tackle something closer to the heart of the problem: designing greener products.

Do monitors, printers, computer motherboards and power supplies, etc., really need to operate in standby mode where they continue to consume power? What's it save us, 10, 5, 3 or 1 seconds to start up our devices faster? Are we that pressed for time or that lazy? Why can't laptop power supplies (bricks) have a built in sensor that determines when laptop batteries no longer need charging, and then fully turn off the transformer? I'm sure those are just a few of the obvious examples and there are many more that could save even more energy.

I have the same beliefs about network security. Educating users only marginally helps the problem. The real issue is designing products that are fundamentally more secure or can automatically configure themselves securely rather than relying on end users to deem what programs should/shouldn't talk through a personal firewall, for example. Same with conserving energy. Fix the problem of creating greener products.

I call on product designers to design products than consume less or no energy, including periods when they might experience light or almost no use, rather than relying on end users to know and act to conserve energy. If you need help understanding how product design decisions impact the "greenness" of a product, and want to know how to design greener products, check out a company called Sustainable Minds (I'm an advisor to this company), their Okala methodology and their green product design industry expert blog. Help us all by starting at the source, creating greener products from the get-go.

And remember to sign up for Power IT Down Day, and most importantly, turn off all that computer equipment when you leave work on August 27th, and every day for that matter.