Technology Turns a Brighter Shade of Green

摘要

As concern for the environment grows every day, more companies are developing "green technologies" to reduce their impact on the environment. A number of these companies recently announced new initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint in the industry. Here are a few of the top innovators and their initiatives: Google released a gadget for Google Desktop that is designed to reduce the power consumption of computers. Once installed, the Energy Saver gadget automatically adjusts Windows users' power settings to conform to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recommendations. Computer screens and hard drives will be turned off after 15 minutes of inactivity and computers will be put to sleep after 30 minutes, according to the gadget's website. Energy Saver also tells users how much energy they are saving, shows them how much combined energy all users who have installed the gadget are saving, and allows them to hit a pause button so they can watch movies, listen to music, or give a presentation without the computer shutting off.