SEATTLE– King County's deployment of Verdiem's Surveyor PC Power Management Software has enabled county agencies to reduce energy consumption by an average of 38 percent and eliminate more than 3 million lbs. of carbon dioxide emissions. The software also helped King County departments achieve PC energy costs reductions ranging up to 62 percent — equal to about $140,000 in savings.

Initiated under the leadership of former County Executive Ron Sims, King County's Climate Plan is considered among the most aggressive and responsive in the nation and a model for green economic best practices worldwide. Sims' accomplishments in King County prompted President Barack Obama to name him deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"With the tools provided by Verdiem, King County has made important advancements towards reducing green house gas emissions, as well as significant and measurable energy cost reductions, which means more efficient use of taxpayer dollars," said Interim King County Executive Kurt Triplett, in a press release.

"King County's continued leadership in setting and implementing progressive energy conservation and environmental stewardship programs serves as a blueprint for local, state, and federal government agencies around the world," said Verdiem CEO Jeremy Jaech, in a press release.

Nearly 10,000 PCs in 18 King County departments, ranging from the Metropolitan King County Council to the Department of Transportation, use the software. While Surveyor can be managed by central IT, each agency has the flexibility to set personal computer power management policies. The Department of Community and Human Services has been able to achieve energy cost saving of 62 percent. King County's deployment of Surveyor has enabled the county to nearly reach its PC energy efficiency goals for 2009 - with Surveyor already achieving 38.6 percent of the County's targeted 39.6 percent goal for PC energy reduction.

King County departments previously relied on the standard power profile options found on many computer operating systems, which didn't provide the detailed measurement and management capabilities required to meet the 2006 executive mandate. Despite initial concerns about possible impacts to user productivity created by an automated power management solution on their networked system, King County IT administrators found Surveyor easy to deploy without noticeable impact to employee productivity and satisfaction.

"By implementing simple policies - such as turning off our monitors after 15 minutes of inactivity and suspending PCs after one hour - we were able to generate a surprising amount of savings," said King County's Central Information Technology Enterprise Services Manager Bob Neddo said in a press release. "The best part about Surveyor is its Wake on WAN functionality that allows our employees to wake their machines remotely when they are working from home. This countywide effort has yielded tremendous benefits that will ultimately help us better serve our residents."

For more information about King County's green initiatives, visit www.kingcounty.gov/exec/globalwarming/.