The Eco Buttons - what are they and what do they do?

Have you ever asked yourself how much energy you waste by leaving your PC sitting idle while you're away from your desk? Quite a lot it seems, and all of it adds up over the years creating a hefty carbon footprint. Computers and monitors can account for a lot of electricity: a single monitor left switched on overnight can use the same amount of energy as a laser printer producing 800 A4 printed copies.

According to a recent study, 500,000 computers in Australia are regularly left on unnecessarily, wasting around half a billion of kWh of energy, approximately 35 million AUD, or around 150,000 tons of carbon (the same as emitted by 60,000 cars!)

All this waste of electricity can be easily avoided by adopting simple energy saving policies and by using energy saving devices like the Ecobutton - with one small click, a huge amount of CO2 emissions could be avoided. For example, a home user running a single desktop computer can make a valuable contribution by saving up to 135kg of CO2 per year and approximately 150 AUD in electricity by using the Ecobutton regularly.

How does it work?

The Ecobutton sits next to your keyboard. It connects to your computer via a USB cable, and when used, puts your computer into the most economical sleep mode (usually Level 3 Standby, as opposed to Level 1 Standby which most desktop computers are routinely set to use and which still uses 50% of PC power). Ecobutton's software also records how many carbon units and how much power and money you have saved by using it. By pressing any key on your keyboard your computer is returned instantly to where you left off. As soon as you resume work, the ecobutton™ will show you just how much energy and how many dollars you've saved; also, it will calculate your CO2 emission savings! The potential is amazing - one small click can really make one big change!

It is a retrofit device, so it will work on any PC running Windows 7, 2000, XP and Vista (including laptops, and PCs with wireless keyboards - but not Macs just yet), and regardless of how energy efficient your IT system may be, the Ecobutton will contribute to further savings. The Ecobutton is designed to be used with desktop PCs mainly, as laptops generally already use Level 3 Standby. However it's still useful for laptops if you have power saving disabled, or if your laptop doesn't use Level 3 Standby. Also some older computers may have difficulty in reactivation. This is a problem with the computer bios and not the Ecobutton software. Moreover, the Ecobutton can also be used in simple networked environments, depending on the type of network and the software being run.

Is it useful?

You wouldn't normally shut down your PC because you were chatting on the phone for ten minutes, or because you went for a quick cup of coffee – but the fact is, even in "energy saving mode" your computer is still burning away precious electricity which costs our planet dearly in CO2 emissions. Unless of course, you have the Ecobutton!

With one push of the Ecobutton your computer will shut down all functions that draw power, except for the minimum amount of memory your machine needs. It also runs on just 1.8 watts of power, which is much, much less than your normal standby mode could manage.

Trees will reach out and hug you!  Polar bears will carve your name in the ice! OK, possibly not. But, you will be  a part of the solution rather than the problem, and that's got to feel awesome.

When you can't flick the off-switch, hit the Ecobutton! And of course, the Ecobutton is manufactured from recycled plastic.