As this article was being written the price of oil was hovering somewhere around the $70 mark, and Sir David Attenborough was about to present the second part of his investigation into whether it's too late to save planet Earth from the impact of climate change.

While very different outlooks on the current state of the world, they have a common factor: whether your motivation is financial or environmental, cutting back on the use of energy must become a priority.

The conservation of energy is just as important in the office as it is in transport or manufacturing, and computing accounts for a huge proportion of office energy consumption.

Dr Garry Felgate, director of delivery and external relations at the Carbon Trust, a government Quango tasked with reducing the carbon footprint of UK businesses, offers an ironic story of an all too common scenario.

On walking past an office near Broadgate in London one Sunday afternoon he looked through the window to see around 50 desktop PCs. All of the computers had their screensavers nonchalantly displaying the message: 'Remember to switch off your computer'.

According to the Carbon Trust, leaving a computer screen on for just one night uses up enough energy to microwave six dinners. The story sums up the complacency of staff at large companies when it comes to saving energy.

"The amount of time that computers are left on is very significant," said Felgate. "In air conditioned offices it's a double whammy. A typical desktop PC will pump out 80 watts of heat, but companies are leaving on air conditioning to counter the heating effects of the computers."