Major IT Companies, EPA Form Green Group

This week, we've posted two items (this one and this one) on how the "green movement" is picking up steam in the IT markets. Seems there's more momentum building:

Earlier this week, some large IT corporations (such as Intel, Google, Dell, HP, IBM, EDS and Microsoft) and at least one government agency (the Environmental Protection Agency) announced this week that they have jointly formed the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The initiative's goal is to " to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive new targets for energy-efficient computers and components," according to the press release.

The initiative has set a 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies for digital equipment, which, if attained, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year, and save more than $5.5 billion, according to Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of operations and a Google fellow. The average desktop "wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power," Hölzle said.

The initiative expands on the Word Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program, "which has mobilized over a dozen companies since 1999 to cut carbon dioxide emissions," according to the Climate Savers Computing Initiative's Web site.