A few days ago I wrote on the fact that internet usage was creating more emissions than aviation. Thankfully those bright people at Oxford University have come up with ways to address the balance.

Oxford are pioneering an energy saving research project to develop software that is free and easy to download, which will make networked computers more energy-efficient and reduce carbon emissions by saving on electricity needs. The project, underway at Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI), will start with an 18-month pilot project on the Oxford campus, and eventually spread to include educational institutions across the U.K.

The research team on the project will monitor not only energy use, but also cost savings from increase computer downtime. Researchers estimate that most computers are in use less than 25 percent of the time — roughly 40 hours during a 168-hour week. 



“No-one sits at their computer for 168 hours a week,” explained Daniel Curtis of Oxford’s ECI. “When a computer is switched on, its power demand remains pretty much constant — regardless of whether its user is surfing the net, word-processing or at home in bed. We are developing a system that will mean that computers only need to be switched on when actually in use.” He went on to add that although this seems like an obvious solution, creating a fix that is easy but doesn’t inconvenience the computer’s users or the IT department at an organization is much trickier.

Curtis estimates that the program can reduce energy consumption by 50 percent in the school’s computers, save nearly half a million dollars and reduce as much as 1,500 tons of carbon emissions each year.