Computers Off Australia gives CeBIT the Green Tick

Computers Off Australia (COA), the not-for-profit Green IT education campaign says CeBIT is the first Australian trade event certified under its Power Management certification program (The Green Tick).

COA has developed the first Green IT labelling initiative globally to help businesses, government and individuals identify organisations that are doing their bit to reduce power consumption and reduce CO2 emissions.

The policy between Australia will see all non-critical IT equipment shut down overnight or when not in use over the three days of the exhibition.

"Having CeBIT certify under the Computers Off labelling program shows their commitment to produce Australia's greenest trade event and certainly shows both corporate and home IT users that it's easy being green," said Mark Winter, founder COA.

"Being certified under the Power Management label and brandishing the Green Tick logo also makes it easier for businesses and the general public to recognise CeBIT as doing their part to lead the industry when it comes to being environmentally responsible", he added.

Jackie Taranto managing director of Hannover Fairs Australia which organises CeBIT said she was proud the event could play such a role in spearheading the move towards a greener environment.

"As the region's largest annual technology event, we believe we should set a clear example for responsible use of IT and power consumption with an eye to our environmental obligations," she said.

"One of our key themes at CeBIT Australia 2009 is how Green IT practices can not only be a worthy social goal in itself, but can also improve business efficiencies and lower energy and running costs in their own right.

"We are proud to put into practice what we so vigorously promote."

The objective of COA's campaign is to improve energy efficiency and deal with global climate change.

It supports an industry-wide target to achieve a 50 percent improvement in Australian and global computer energy efficiency by 2010.

If Australian home users, businesses and the government turn of their computers when they are not in use they can save in excess of $1.3 billion per annum and reduce carbon emissions by 5,938,926 tonnes per annum.

This is equivalent to taking 1,373,517 cars off the road, planting 2,165,260 trees and 8,882,715 homes that would be lit for a year by the energy saved by turning on power management on home and work computers. (at 12c electricity cost per kWh).