For more than 20 years, Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. In his introduction to State of Green Business 2009 he writes "This year’s update is a similar mixed bag of encouraging and discouraging news. But on balance, despite a growing chorus of corporate commitments and actions, we’re less optimistic that these activities, in aggregate, are addressing planetary problems at sufficient scale and speed."

In our articles on the opportunities to save energy in a home office we find that the individual amounts of energy saved are small. I do encourage all our readers to visit Climate Savers Computing to learn about the work started by Google and Intel in 2007, and to seriously consider making a commitment with them to save computing energy.

Matt Peterson of Vertatique comments "The biggest materiality challenge may well be how to resolve the dissonance between that which is material in the aggregate, but apparently immaterial to the individual"

The serious question we must ask is, will we each make the effort to achieve these small savings, knowing that the direct benefits to us are small, but that the cumulative impacts to all are significant?

Sadly the circumstances of our lives; the economy, health care and terrorist threat is filling our heads. One person I recently spoke with went so far as to say "we are slipping into a fear induced depression". We have developed a tendency to respond best to rewards and threats. We have been numbed to the cumulative opportunities to help others, like the $0.85 cent saving to a manufacturer when we select the digital delivery option for a software purchase.

I was recently asked why saving energy matters so much to me?

It is a good question and warrants a considered answer.

I do not do it to feel good about myself, and I certainly do not want to be promoting energy awareness as a self help discipline. Ironically though, as I step away from my desk and remember to put my laptop to sleep I am reminded of trying to be a better person in all aspects of my life. I do not know the full answer, but I do know that the energy I use is not mine to waste. If I respect the God who created me, and I am grateful for the grace I have been shown, I do not think it is too much to ask that I be a good steward of what I have been given, or that I think of the cumulative benefit of us all saving more?

And do remember to be kind to yourself, for life is about progress rather than perfection.