Just after the National Day, an article in the blog on the intranet of Intel drew a great number of comments. The article contains a small story, which happened when Ian Yang, General Manager of Intel (Greater China), paid a visit to his mother-in-law and lived at her home during the National Day Golden Week, and a large piece of writing giving vent of his feeling about such an experience.

Ian Yang said that during the National Day, the weather in Shanghai was quite different from that in Beijing and it was so hot that it was necessary to turn on the air-conditioner. However, air-conditioners in two respective rooms could not be turned on simultaneously as the circuit at his mother-in-law's home was outdated and the switch tended to turn off. As a result, "It is cool in one of the two rooms while it is hot in the other". Thus, it is very natural for him as General Manager of Intel (Greater China), the developer of computer chips that can have the energy consumption cut down by 40 percent, to think that "Perhaps such a problem can be readily solved so long as the air conditioner's power waste can be reduced by 50 percent. It is obvious that energy conservation is a very realistic issue!"

In daily life, we have all had many similar experiences to that of Ian Yang. Take computers for an example. Sometimes, the energy-conserving effect of an energy-conserving computer having been authenticated will be unexpected in comparison with a common computer. For instance, as the Kaitian desktops that Lenovo provided to the 2008 Beijing Olympiad as a sponsor are equipped with the high efficiency power supply technology, fans with the speed controlled intelligently and chips under control for energy conservation, etc., a mainframe in an idle state has simply a power less than 4W, far lower than the power of 10W prescribed in the standard. In case that each computer that we are using can satisfy such a criterion, the annual power consumption will be cut down by 2 billion KWH, which corresponds to the yearly power consumption volume of 1.5 million households.

Just as it is seen that there exist pressures and huge potentials on energy conservation in the industry, various enterprises in the electronic and information industries have received three proposals. The first proposal is to make efforts to cut down the energy consumption of electronic products in such parts of the production process as research and development, production and manufacture, distribution and circulation with attempts to realize the "green" supply chain of electronic products. The second proposal is to make efforts to cut down the energy consumption of electronic products themselves, develop and produce "green" electronic products, and put into practice the development road of "high efficiency and low energy consumption" for electronic products. The third proposal is to research and develop new energy-consuming technologies and products, provide solutions of energy-conserving and discharge-reducing technologies for extensive fields for the application of electronic and information products and users.

Ian Yang from Intel said in the above-mentioned article on the blog, "On the microcosmic level of chip technology and products, we have developed a clear roadmap of high performance and low energy consumption." Last year, Intel launched its Core? 2 Duo processor products, which has surpassed Pentium of the previous generation and successfully had the energy consumption cut down by 40 percent; then, Pentium Duo processor products and Celeron single core processor products based on the Core? framework were put forth this year. Testing results from China Software Testing Center show that the average power waste is only 19W. In the coming year, Intel will continue to launch Nehalem, a brand-new micron system framework; by then, the power waste will be further cut down.
 
For the moment, on the one hand, Intel is actively popularizing such energy-conserving processors in Internet Bars and other markets; on the other hand, it is reinforcing its cooperation with the industrial circles to cut down the overall power waste of computer products and further extend high efficiency and energy conservation to almost all electronic products.

Nowadays, as informatization is increasingly, all-pervading and the data storage volume in all kinds of data centers is also increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 52 percent, the power waste thus incurred has accounted for 30~40 percent of the total energy consumption volume of data centers. How to effectively cut down such energy consumption? Hou Miao, General Manager of IBM Systems Storage (Greater China), believed that it was the optimal method to have the IT fundamental framework simplified with virtualization technology. So, the storage strategy that they have developed in China is "Simplification and all-rounded growth" so as to ensure the continuity of clients and businesses while making it possible for them to be environment-friendly, energy-conserving and consumption-cutting.

Nowadays, information technology can be used to realize the potentials of information technology itself in energy conservation; besides, another important role of information technology is to help traditional industries that are highly energy-consuming to realize energy saving and emission reduction. People have seen from certain cases of application the huge market space and social and economic benefits that it releases.

Lou Qinjian, Vice Minister of Information Industry pointed out on the 2007 China Electronics Energy Conservation Summit that energy saving and emission reduction were not only important contents in the government's work but also a direction in which both the industrial circles and extensive users of electronic and information products should make efforts; substantial results can only be obtained from energy saving and emission reduction and get further promoted when various parties including governments, industries and users all take actions actively.

Take Lenovo as an example. For years, Lenovo has been paying attention to energy saving and emission reduction in its process of development and became one of the first batch of personal computer manufacturers who managed to obtain the ISO9000 authentication in China while getting in line with international practices in the field of energy saving and emission reduction. As introduced, all paper pellets used for Lenovo's computers will be of a recycled kind when they are transported by air. 25 tons of wood will be thus saved each year, and by selecting to use 100 percent thermoforming packaging materials that can be recycled, 80 tons of primary plastic materials can be saved. Moreover, they adopt innovative compound packages for major clients and have five laptops packaged in a packaging box. Such a kind of design that seems simple does not only make it possible for clients to cut down their time spent on disassembling goods by over 5 percent but also result in a reduction in packaging materials used by 60 percent.

In comparison with traditional enterprises with high energy consumption, relatively less energy is consumed in the production and operations of the electronic industry; but it cannot be neglected that a large quantity of power energy will be consumed in the process of using a large number of electronic products launched into the market. Data show that nearly a half of the power energy consumed by each desktop is less effectively used, and the issue of pollutions resulted from electronic wastes thus produced has attracted keen attention from the society. Therefore, heavy responsibilities shall be shouldered on the "green" road for the IT industry.