Today at the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster, London, Techno-Footprint is holding an event called ICT and Sustainability in the Public Sector. With large ICT systems forming a significant, and increasing, part of a modern public sector body's carbon footprint, the event aims to bring together lessons from best practice in environmental sustainability from across the field of public sector ICT.
So, there’ll be over 148 delegates from the UK Police, MOD, Social Services and various government departments wanting to learn about the value of green PCs and the new EU directives. And that’s why VIA has a team there showcasing how its products enable the design of computers that not only reduce electricity costs but also associated carbon emissions.
Since 2001, VIA has led the industry in the design of energy-efficient x86 platforms enabling a new generation of low power, small form factor computing devices. From thin clients to laptops, desktops and now the new ultra mobile devices, VIA processor platforms have built a reputation for leading performance per watt and cool operation.
And why is power efficiency so important? The key driver is that power is expensive and getting more so – to the point where many predict that it could go from 10 percent of an IT budget to 50 percent within a matter of years. Further, there are cities (and this information is from the States here) to which power companies literally cannot deliver more electricity: their grids have reached their limits. According to ComputerWorld (March 26th, 2007), for example, “You can’t buy any more power in Boston or Houston, and other cities are either on the tapped-out list or about to be. It doesn’t matter if you are Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, you can’t buy any more.”
Given this, and the fact that world energy consumption is projected to increase by 59 percent from 1999 to 2020, and the power efficiency of ever-growing numbers of computers both in the home and office is the key to making sure our use of this energy is sustainable.
So, if you’re in the area, stop by the Church House Conference Centre and see what VIA’s doing to help shape a more sustainable computing environment.
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