Oct. 30, 2008 - AT&T has installed power management software on more than 300,000 PCs throughout its U.S. operations. The telecom giant expects to save more than 135 million kilowatt hours of electricity and upward of 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year simply by powering down the PCs during non-work hours.

The move is part of the AT&T's overall strategy to reduce its environmental impact across its operations. The company is working to enhance energy performance and reduce energy consumption in company buildings, datacenters, IT systems, and networks.

"For the IT function at AT&T, our emphasis is doing more work with less energy and using products that are minimally impacting the environment," says Rick Felts, AT&T senior vice president of Information Technology Operations. "Installing a power management solution builds on our ongoing efforts to drive energy efficiency inside our facilities. It also allows us to systematically and safely power down PCs while at the same time not compromising our ability to perform software updates as needed."

A study earlier this year found that nearly 80% of workers admit to not practicing the same energy-saving steps at work as they do at home, and leave their computers on overnight. The average workers wastes about $12,000 a year and 3.36 tons of CO2 by doing this, the study estimated.

Despite the obvious business benefits of energy efficiency (starting with the electric bill), IT managers still struggle to move from awareness to green action. For advice on overcoming some common barriers to green IT, click here.