The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has thrown its weight behind a major new initiative calling on IT manufacturers, retailers and customers, including Starbucks, to embrace energy-efficiency measures and meet stringent new targets for IT power consumption.

Intel, Google, AMD, Microsoft, IBM and over 30 other IT manufacturers, customers, retailers and energy companies have joined the Climate Savers Computing Initiative and pledged to meet energy-efficiency benchmarks that would see them slash computer power consumption by 50 percent by 2010.

Pat Gelsinger of Intel said the new energy-efficiency targets would deliver a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions “equal to removing more than 11 million cars from the road”.

Businesses are also being urged to sign up and commit to optimising the energy efficiency of their existing systems and only purchasing kit certified as having met Climate Savers’ targets.

The WWF admitted systems boasting high energy efficiency could be up to $20 per PC and $30 per server more expensive than rival versions. However, it argued that firms would accrue major financial gains from joining the scheme in the form of lower energy bills and possible access to utility rebates, as well as corporate social responsibility and environmental benefits.

Experts welcomed the move, but also raised fears that the emergence of another green IT group could dilute the effectiveness of existing energy efficiency labels, such as the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star scheme. The EPA is itself a member of the WWF group, despite the new Climate Savers standard requiring manufacturers to surpass its Energy Star targets.

John Madden of analyst Ovum argued there was a risk that multiple standards could confuse customers.

“In the grand scheme of things more initiatives are beneficial as they help to raise the profile of the [environmental] issue further,” he said. “But we already have [datacentre-focused consortium] the Green Grid, Energy Star, other standards, and now this, and there will come a point where customers could end up confused about which standard is best.”