Up to two million PCs were left on between Christmas and the New Year break, creating unnecessary energy costs amounting to £3.1m
The research, commissioned by vendor 1E in partnership with The National Energy Foundation (NEF), showed that At least 1.7 million PCs are habitually left on every night and over the weekend, causing businesses to incur an annual electricity bill of £115m.
'Companies adopting environmental stewardship programmes or aiming to reduce emissions will only achieve this by taking control and centralising power management,' said Sumir Karayi, co-founder and chief executive of 1E.
'In a busy office environment it can be difficult to ensure everyone shuts down their computer before going home, particularly in large businesses.'
The research also shows that employees who don’t turn off their PCs contribute 700,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to UK business emissions each year - equivalent to the annual emissions of 120,000 4x4 cars.
Furthermore, nearly nine out of 10 (87.7 per cent) employees have never been asked to shut down their PC at night by their boss and More than one in five workers (22 per cent) leave their computers on at least three times a week, wasting 1.5 billion kWh of electricity.
'In many cases IT departments advise staff to keep their computers turned on so they can conduct maintenance and software checks after normal working hours, but by introducing relatively simple measures, businesses can easily play their part in reducing CO2 emissions,' said Karayi.
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Further Reading:
Bus inesses count the energy cost of Christmas
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