It is six in the evening on a weekday - knock-off time. Thinking about the night out with friends that awaits, a worker grabs her personal effects, dumps them into her handbag and makes a hasty exit.

She forgets to turn off her workstation.

Sounds familiar?

Multiply that scenario countless times - from careless use of IT gizmos - and the energy wasted is unforgivable.

Hewlett-Packard estimates that a computer left on for an entire year releases about 680kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

So, it has come up with a desktop widget that calculates the energy saved when people turn off their PCs in three scenarios:

• - Personal wastage;
• - Group wastage;
• - Estimated cars off the road, based on reduction in carbon emissions.

Download and install the widget (from www.hp.com/powertochange) and it will compile this data based on the time your computer remains turned on, active or idle.

If nothing, the calculations should induce a tinge of guilt, and get you to be more eco-responsible.

The widget is part of its global campaign to send a message of collective effort, entitled Power To Change and in line with World Environment Day (WED), which was on June 5.

“The most prominent global environmental issue we face today isn’t really about poisons,” said Pete Ekstedt, director of HP Asia-Pacific and Japan, refer to toxic pollution.

This includes emissions from mining or production, or seepage of chemicals from discarded products like batteries and lead paint.

Bringing up an oft-repeated point about climate change, he said that increased levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to global warming.

“Left unmitigated, this is likely to trigger a range of environmental problems threatening agriculture, natural habitats and communities in low-lying coastal areas.”

Global warming is one of the main issues to be re-examined during WED, a yearly event started by United Nations in 1972 to raise global awareness on the issue.

This year’s theme is Your Planet Needs You - Unite to Combat Climate Change.

HP is not the only IT giant playing its part to combat global warming.

American telco company AT&T showed, conversely, how it uses technology to save the environment. It hosted its biannual Asia-Pacific regional customer meeting using telepresence smarts. In all, 21 customers from 15 companies, and 15 AT&T staff in 10 locations, attended.

The savings from this e-meeting versus travelling for face-to-face meetings?

More than US$100,000 (S$146,000), plus an equivalent of more than 62 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

Environmental Challenge Organisation (ECO) Singapore, however, thinks that there is far more to the picture than just global warming.

“It is the manfuacturing and disposal of IT products that is not given enough attention even though these cause greater damage to the environment,” said its president Wilson Ang.

“Technology has advanced quickly. New innovations are very easy to access. They are discarded when the next new product comes along. This creates a cycle of more and more electronic waste piling up worldwide.

“Singapore is not exempt from this. Many of our electronic products hardly last us for more than three years - even less,” said Wilson.

The key, he said, is to cultivate a green consciousness. For example, buy green products and dispose of gizmos, from batteries to PCs, properly.

And, yes, switch off the PC before you leave the office.

- Ian Poh. The Strait Times, Digital Life, Wednesday, June 10, 2009