Gadget of the Week: Edison software empowering you to reduce your carbon footprint

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 12:28

If travelling by plane gives you a twinge of green guilt, there could be a quick and easy way to make a difference to your carbon footprint closer to home.

While gas guzzling jumbo jets dump millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, startling new research from Gartner has shown that the IT industry generates the same amount of pollution as 365 days of global air traffic. With 40 per cent of these emissions generated by PCs and monitors, your family PC shares more in common with an oil spitting monster truck than a Toyota Prius.

But don't worry, your desk-bound family PC as well as your slim notebook can be "energy detoxed" in seconds so that they behave more like Daniel O'Donnell than Amy Winehouse, thanks to Edison, an innovative little piece of software from Glasgow-based company, Indigo.

The vast majority of computers are left powered on for several hours every day when they're not in use. Even if you're conscientious enough to tuck your PC in and send him to sleep mode, programs such as iTunes and Adobe Flash often run in the background, preventing your PC from dozing off to enjoy dreams of circuit boards and USB sticks. Edison is the sleeping pill your PC craves. This clever little energy-monitoring application simply asks when you normally work on your PC. You then have a couple of sliders to determine how much energy you're looking to save. With maximum energy savings selected, my PC went into a low power state after 10 minutes of inactivity, with Edison informing me that it was going to save me at least 20 in energy bills and prevent 98kg of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.

And the price of this planet-saving little piece of software? Nothing. There's no catch either as Indigo makes its money supplying a supercharged version of its energy management software, Surveyor, to big businesses including eBay, NASA, Cadbury and even the NHS.

Still not convinced? If everyone in Edinburgh installed Edison on their computer, it would be the equivalent CO2 saving of taking more than 2,600 vehicles off the capital's roads – think about what the city bypass would be like then!

n To download Edison for free and for more information on the enterprise level Surveyor system, visit www.indigoavs.co.uk