Environmental Leader

U.S. businesses are wasting $1.72 billion a year on PCs that are not shut down at night, according to a survey (PDF) released by 1E and the Alliance to Save Energy. 

A mid-sized company, which includes about 10,000 PCs, wastes more than $165,000 a year in electricity costs for computers left on overnight.

According to Sumir Karayi, chief executive officer, 1E, it is evident from the findings of the report that worker apathy and insufficient business systems are part of the cause for wasting a tremendous amount of energy. Power savings of significant value can be achieved only when all the stakeholders involved are satisfied, namely PC users themselves, IT departments–who need to keep computers up-to-date– and finally those tasked with managing their organizations’ Corporate Social Responsibility credentials.

“Ideally, everyone would shut down their PCs at the end of the working day, but the research released shows that this just doesn’t happen,” he stated.

According to the report, some people assume their IT departments need their machines to be left on overnight in order to deploy security patches and software updates. Others believe an on-board “sleep” or hibernation mode kicks in–which isn’t usually the case. And, a number of respondents admitted that they just don’t care.