With energy costs soaring to record levels, taking steps to reduce energy consumption isn't just good for the environment--it's also essential for the fiscal health of schools. At a recent webinar on "green" computing, panelists discussed several ways school leaders can reduce the power consumption of their technology systems...and ways they can use technology to cut other energy expenditures, too.

"What's going to happen to this world if we don't change our behavior?" asked consultant Karen Greenwood Henke, who moderated the online discussion for the Consortium for School Networking, its host.

Switching a single light bulb to an energy-efficient bulb can save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, Henke said--and if every family in the United States made the switch, carbon dioxide output would be reduced by more than 90 billion pounds.

"Even small changes can have a big impact," she said.

Information technology (IT) energy usage "will double in the next four years, and there are some easy things in the world of IT that we can do to attack this problem," according to Andrew Verdesca, marketing manager of energy-efficient technologies and services for IBM.

Verdesca used his company as an example of how a wide range of organizations can foster eco-responsibility. IBM offers a program, called Big Green Innovations, that helps school systems, corporations, and other enterprises design more energy-efficient data centers and reduce energy consumption. IBM also operates asset-recovery programs for buying back and disposing of used IT systems.

"eWaste can't be ignored--1 billion computers will become potential scrap by 2010, and only 45 percent of U.S. companies have eco-friendly disposal plans," Verdesca said.

He said diagnosing the power consumption of your current IT systems is the first step in figuring out which systems are taking up the most energy--and determining which systems can be placed in idle mode when they are not being used.

"Just understanding how much power is being consumed is a big part of [solving the problem]," he said.

It's estimated that, in an entire data center, the actual IT systems account for 45 percent of energy use, and power and cooling apparatuses account for 55 percent, Verdesca said. It's also estimated that only 20 percent of an IT system is being used, and the remaining 80 percent is not being used.

"Seizing control of the wasted spaces in systems" is a step in the right direction, he said.

There are things you can start doing right way to "go green" in your schools, said Darrell Walery, director of technology for the Consolidated High School District 230 in Illinois. He added: "A lot of the things, you're already doing."

Walery's district makes use of conference calling and online meetings to save on gas consumption and paper costs, and the district is upgrading certain online communications channels to save on these expenses as well.