By Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres

As it becomes clearer almost by the day that climate change poses an unprecedented challenge to our ability to sustain life on Earth, it is tempting to hope that technological innovation will be a panacea. After all, technological solutions appear to promise relatively quick, easy fixes to complex problems without the daunting challenge of modifying human behavior. Technological innovation has and will continue to be an integral part of the human story, and faith in technology to improve life for the better seems stitched into our DNA.

If we found a way, for example, to generate clean electricity "too cheap to meter," as proponents of nuclear power once touted, we wouldn’t have to worry about turning off lights, shutting down computers at night, and changing our consumptive habits. But the promise of technology is never quite so simple or without trade-offs, and hoping for the technological silver bullet that will solve the climate change challenge, and other sustainability challenges of the 21st century, would be misguided.

Nevertheless, technological innovations, especially those that deliver greater energy efficiency from the stove top to the desk top, from the homes and offices we occupy, to the cars we drive and the planes we fly, is urgently needed on a far-reaching scale. But, without dramatic changes in human behavior at the individual level, it won’t be enough. We cannot innovate our way out of the fix we are in. It’s going to require new technology and new ways of living.

The so-called "green revolution" is gaining momentum. Books, magazines, and web sites devoted to "green living" are taking off. So, too, are investments in new technologies that will reduce our carbon footprint, whether it is development of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, more fuel efficient or hybrid cars, or "green" building materials.

Ironically, however, some of the technologies we once believed would lighten our environmental footprint have proven, in practice, to be problematic in their own right. Consider the way in which vast quantities of information travel today. At first blush, sending an e-mail would certainly seem to be "greener" and cleaner than mailing a letter. The letter requires paper derived from wood taken from forests that are disappearing at an alarming rate. Forestry requires heavy equipment to cut and haul wood, burning fossil fuels in the process. And turning wood into paper is also carbon intensive, not to mention the environmental impacts of the chemicals used to turn wood into pulp and pulp into paper. And the letter itself has to be transported in fuel-burning trucks and airplanes. An e-mail, by contrast, seems to speed through the ether leaving nary a trace. But, it isn’t so. Though more environment friendly than a letter, the e-mails we send require computers that consume energy to manufacture and operate. And because computer technology advances so quickly, the life span of the average computer is just a few years. The result? A massive solid waste and chemical disposal challenge.

Move from the desktop and deeper into the IT networks that shuttle and store all of our data, and you find massive "server farms" housed in intensively climate controlled buildings. Indeed, such server farms (or data centers) are, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, up to 40 times more energy intensive than conventional office buildings of comparable size. In short, the environmental impact of moving all those bits and bytes around is substantial. Last year, emailing and web surfing in the U.S. consumed 61 billion kilowatt-hours, or 1.5 percent of the nation’s electricity. Indeed, with a billion people now online and the number growing daily, the world’s computer networks consume more than 100 billion kilowatts of electricity annually, with businesses paying an estimated $7.2 billion in utility bills associated with their use of IT networks. As electricity costs increase, the percentage of IT budgets dedicated to energy consumption could soon exceed 50%.

Though technological innovation has catalyzed significant global economic growth and our information and energy-intensive life style, it has also contributed to the sustainability challenges of the 21st century. We will need dramatic behavioral changes at the individual level and even greater technological innovation at the societal level. And, when it comes to technological innovation, the highest priority has to be energy efficiency. It is the key to slowing the pace of climate change and a fiscal imperative in an era of rapidly rising energy prices.

Particularly promising is the use of IT to improve energy efficiency. While most of us interact with IT on our desktops, it has countless other applications, some of which can help us better manage and reduce energy consumption. It is well-established that drivers who can observe the mileage they are getting per gallon in real time on their dashboards adjust their driving habits to reduce fuel consumption. New technologies are making this possible inside the home and office, from simple devices that allow consumers to see how their energy use increases as they turn on certain appliances, to "smart meters" connected to wireless networks that can be programmed to automatically turn off lights and appliances when energy use exceeds a set limit. The use of sensors to automatically adjust lighting and climate control systems as people move about homes and offices may also play an important role in reducing energy consumption in the buildings we live and work in, buildings that now are responsible for 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Of particular importance, however, is the "greening" of IT itself. Given the enormous energy demands of IT networks, energy efficiency — from the desktop to the server to the buildings that house the equipment needed to run the IT networks on which modern life depends — must be a high priority.

Starting on the desktop, the annual carbon footprint of 15 PCs can equal that of a mid-size car, and about two-thirds of the electricity drawn by a PC is wasted by running the computer at full power when it isn’t being used. PC power management software can reduce energy consumption and cut energy bills by up to $60 per PC per year. For major corporations with tens of thousands of employees using computers, the potential savings from energy efficiency are enormous.

Important strides are also being made in the development and production of the large servers that run IT networks. Indeed, technological innovation has led to development of servers, on the market today, that are up to five times more energy efficient than older models.

More powerful, but more energy efficient servers have allowed some leading IT companies to dramatically reduce the number and size of data centers needed to run IT networks, with corresponding energy savings. Others are locating data centers near renewable energy sources and are developing innovative ways to maintain climate control with minimal energy demands.

While these energy-saving innovations are all to the good, individuals and companies must be aware of the environmental costs of technology and use technology efficiently. No matter how efficient we make our computers, cars, appliances and power plants, our actions such as turning off our computers at night, driving as little as possible, and using energy wisely will remain an imperative in the fight against climate change.

In sum, innovative technology that improves the energy efficiency of everything from our home appliances to our office buildings to the cars we drive and the networks we use to share information is an important part of any strategy to address climate change. However, as the Earth’s population continues to grow, energy efficiencies could well be offset by greater demand. It is up to each of us to lighten the load we are asking the Earth to bear.

About Ceres

Ceres is a leading network of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), comprised of over 60 institutional investors who collectively manage more than $5 trillion in assets. For more information, visit www.ceres.org.