Power Down for the Planet
http://www.powerdownfortheplanet.org/
The University of Mississippi is joining the Power Down for the Planet challenge to reduce power use by computers on campus. Help Ole Miss beat other universities across the nation by logging on and pledging to reduce your computer’s energy use. The steps are easy to take, and the benefits will last long after the contest concludes.
The month-long contest begins March 23, 2009. The university that has the highest percentage of participation over the one-month period will win. There is a $10,000 prize at stake, along with various other prizes. Winners will be announced on Earth Day, April 23, 2009.
Participating in this challenge is easy: visit the website www.powerdownfortheplanet.org, sign the online pledge and then change the settings on your computer to optimize energy savings. The IT Department is ready to help you make the changes on your computer. Also, the videos below walk you through the steps.
By enabling power saving features on desktop PCs, U.S. college students could collectively make an enormous impact:
- Savings of more than 1.6 billion kilowatt hours per year
- Annual savings of more than $150 million in energy costs
- 1 million-ton reduction of CO2 emissions from the operation of computers
- Equivalent to taking more than 200,000 cars off the road
There is also a video contest, in which students can illustrate the problem of energy use in computing. Prizes for the video challenge include cold, hard cash, brand-new Specialized bikes, and sweet Hewlett-Packard laptops. The entry deadline is April 17.
The contest is sponsored by the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a nonprofit group devoted to reducing energy use in computing. For more information, visit http://www.powerdownfortheplanet.org/