Hilary Rogers of Uniblue writes:

Global warming and its impact on the environment is a hot topic in the news at the moment. As a software company, we are aware of the fact that the energy required to run the computers belonging to 660 million users worldwide, runs into millions of kilowatt hours each day. It is estimated that more than 30 billion kilowatt hours of energy are wasted each year because many people forget to shut down their computer when leaving the office. The CO2 emissions from all those computers are huge, especially as the emissions from just 15 computers are equivalent in energy terms to the gas consumption used by one car!

Here’s something that every computer user worldwide can do from their desktop, right now, to reduce the output of CO2 from their computer and it’s totally free. LocalCooling.com is a brand new project from the labs at Uniblue Systems. The new downloadable application will automatically optimize the power settings on a PC by using a more efficient and effective power save mode. An easy-to-use interface allows users to change their default power settings, meaning savings on electricity bills for the users, and therefore a reduction in the amount of greenhouse gas that results from powering a computer.

The LocalCooling.com Web site updates the results in real time for power savings, and translates this into meaningful environmental terms, such as how many trees and barrels of oil have been saved since the LocalCooling.com community started. As word spreads and more people download the application, the Web site will display the rapid increases in the savings made globally. Members can set up individual, team, and company accounts showing the savings for one, two, or a whole office network of PCs. There is a fun aspect to LocalCooling.com as users can compete with each other in the “Top 100″ League Tables of the biggest savers worldwide.

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