Typical large organisation can easily add £250k to its bottom line while reducing carbon emissions by 2,500 tonnes annually*

5TH October 2009, UK: IT and communications provider Redstone Managed Solutions has launched littleFOOT, a software tool that cuts energy costs and provides UK companies with an urgently needed carbon reduction saving of up to 75% of the energy their office PCs produce.

littleFOOT, an Ecosoft product, enables an organisation’s employees to influence the management and reduction of the power consumption and carbon footprint attributed to their PC or laptop in a simple and intuitive way, within defined parameters.

littleFOOT provides an on screen ‘widget’ which enables employees to monitor their personal environmental performance so that they can see when their behaviour - like going to a meeting and leaving their PC on - is wasting carbon. The software also makes it easy for users to put their machine on standby or turn it off when they leave their desk to attend to other business without needing to go through layers of menus to find the ‘off’ button.

The software provides a simple web portal through which managers can create, view and export reports on energy usage and performance improvements which are essential audit trails for environmental compliance. Reports can be defined by, among others, devices, departments, and office locations. The reports are based on the nature of PC usage and capture the kWh’s used, savings achieved, financial cost of kWh’s and actual carbon emissions generated.

This month will see over 5,000 UK organisations being contacted by DEFRA, outlining the legislation and required compliance to meet the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) which comes into force next April. While this is only the tip of UK business computer usage, the CRC demonstrates the increased pressure being placed on organisations and the need for tools that make carbon emission control and reduction quick and painless.

A PC using littleFOOT can reduce its energy consumption by 20% and up to 75% in some organisations, which could provide a typical large organisation with a financial saving of £250,000 in reduced energy costs and over 2,500 tonnes of carbon emissions saved annually.

Robert Cavan, Managing Director, Redstone Managed Solutions, said: “Organisations are under pressure to save money and reduce carbon emissions at the same time but so many initiatives in this area are slow moving and time is of the essence. littleFOOT can start saving money and carbon from day one and should be sitting on every office PC globally. Our strategic partnership with Ecosoft allows Redstone Managed Solutions to add sustainability to our managed IT services and provides organisations with a joined up cost saving and carbon reduction initiative.”

Mark Batchelor, Managing Director, Ecosoft, said: “Working with Redstone Managed Solutions is a natural fit for us as they understand the importance of taking a whole view of an organisation’s IT operations and making them perform at maximum efficiency.”

IT has been credited with creating over 2% of global carbon emissions, growing to 3% in 2010. IT’s energy consumption is equal to the global airline industry. (Gartner)

A website with more information has also been launched: http://wesustain.redstonemanaged.co.uk

*Based on a typical £25 and 0.25 tonne of carbon saving per year per computer operating during normal working hours