Green IT

Scroll down to the bottom of our last six all-in-one desktop reviews and you'll find CNET Labs' latest addition to the desktop testing regimen. With the help of the Environmental Protection Agency's EnergyStar program, some impressive-looking power meters, and not a little trial and error, we're happy to report that we've finally published the first batch of power consumption results.

We have a few goals in mind with our new power tests. We want to help you make more informed buying decisions, for one thing. You'll see an annual energy cost chart in each review that compares the yearly estimated cost to operate a variety of systems. We don't expect the actual dollar amount will influence most of you one way or another (we're only talking about a range from $15 to $30 in this first round), but an annual cost figure also distills the relative efficiency between systems down to straightforward terms. You can also refer to our newly official Juice Box, located above the cost chart, for the individual power ratings across a variety of usage states for each system.… Read more

Microsoft has made energy efficiency a key design element of Windows 7, focusing on better power management for end users and centralized tools for IT pros, company executives said Friday.

Company engineers sought to make power management features more accessible than previous versions of Windows while at the same time, giving people the ability to customize settings.

The operating system, which will be released in October, by default is smarter about what to turn on when, according to company executives. For example, the Bluetooth wireless services won't be activated until a device is connected and the DVD spindle will … Read more

Ice Energy said on Monday it has partnered with data center cooling company Data Aire to make a hybrid air conditioner that uses ice for efficient cooling.

The idea behind Ice Energy's Ice Bear air conditioner is to make ice in a storage tank during off-peak times to take advantage of lower rates. The machine uses the stored ice to make cool air during times of higher energy demand--and higher rates.

Ice Energy and Data Aire said they have tested a way to link the Ice Bear to Data Aire's cooling systems. The companies said that the combination … Read more

Verdiem on Monday is expected to release an add-on to its PC power-management software that gives people a customizable view of energy savings and carbon emissions reductions.

The Seattle-based company said that the software, called Sustainability Dashboard, offers a visual display for a number of metrics, such as savings over time, and translates that into the equivalent of cars removed from the road or trees planted.

It works with Surveyor, a program that lets IT departments automatically put computers on standby mode on a schedule. For example, it can turn off PCs at night that are left on or put … Read more

Swedish-Japanese phone maker Sony Ericsson on Thursday announced targets for reducing CO2 emissions.

The initiative, part of its pre-existing GreenHeart program launched in September 2008, is intended to reduce emissions by 20 percent across internal operations and by 15 percent over the full life cycle of its products by 2015.

Sony Ericsson plans to roll its green strategy into its entire portfolio over time, which is different from focusing on individual green products, such as Nokia's Green 3110 or Motorola's Renew W233.

"We would rather have mainstream models that we sell in large quantities than one particular … Read more

Not long ago the infrastructure pieces needed to construct a data center were pretty straightforward--Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units, power conditioning equipment, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), and electrical and plumbing to tie it all together. It wasn't unimportant. But it was largely a well-understood extension to the HVAC infrastructure of a typical commercial building.

That's changing in a big way for two major reasons.

The first is that servers may have gotten smaller but IT shops are trying to cram ever more of them into a given space. The result is that more power has to … Read more

Having issued a middling report card to consumer electronics companies earlier this year, environmental watchdog Greenpeace is now targeting big IT companies which it says are not pulling their weight when it comes to tackling climate change.

With its Cool IT Challenge, Greenpeace on Wednesday created a scorecard for the CEOs of the largest IT companies that shows how they rate on climate leadership. Overall, Greenpeace doesn't look on them kindly.

It gives IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano relatively high marks for disclosing the company's emissions reduction targets and spearheading its "Smart Planet" initiative to make transportation and the utility industry more efficient through IT. Toshiba scored only 2 out of 100 because it needs to improve its emissions reductions and use of renewable energy, according to Greenpeace.

Greenpeace has kind words for Sun Microsystems for developing energy-efficient servers and undertaking a company-wide sustainable program. … Read more

SiCortex, a company that makes energy-efficient high-end servers, is shutting down and seeking to sell its assets, according to reports.

Maynard, Mass.-based SiCortex was unable to close a follow-on round of financing because its venture capital investors did not have money available, according to a report at high-performance computing site Inside HPC. SiCortex has raised $42 million from Chevron Technology Ventures, Flagship Ventures, JK&B Capital, Prism VentureWorks, and Polaris Venture Partners.

Intellectual property manager Gerbsman Partners is trying to sell the assets of SiCortex, according to a blog post from Gerbsman. A memorandum posted on Thursday from … Read more

The first version of an Energy Star rating for enterprise servers is poised for release on Monday, with about one quarter of available servers expected to meet the standard.

The specification, which has been under development for a few years, is designed to give buyers a starting point for evaluating the energy-efficiency of servers, according to Andrew Fanara, a program manager for Energy Star at the Environmental Protection Agency.

It includes a common "power and performance data sheet" that reports energy data in a common format. Compliant products will also have relatively efficient power supplies, which means they … Read more