A non-profit group started by several of the leading PC companies went within its ranks to find an executive director. Pat Tiernan, who was VP of Social and Environmental Responsibility at HP, will oversee the Climate Savers Computing Initiative's effort to cut the energy used by PCs by half.

Slashing energy the energy draw of computers would reduce global CO2 emissions by 54 million tons per year, equivalent to the annual output of 11 million cars or 20 coal-fired power plants, according to the group.

Half of a PC's energy consumption is not productive but instead generates waste heat. Climate Savers is developing standards for PCs to automatically enter low power mode during periods of inactivity. Most PCs – especially in corporate environments – left on when unattended continue to consume close to their full power. A reliable way of quickly turning on and off PC components could go along way towards eliminating unnecessary carbon emissions.

The group was founded in 2007 and boasts the backing of PC hardware heavyweights Dell, HP, Intel, and Lenovo as well as Microsoft and Google.

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