We waste an amazing amount of power, and a big part of that is the machines we leave on standby. I blame part of that on manufacturers and technology - partly for providing a sleep function in TVs and computers, and partly because we have DC power adaptors for charging your phone or PDA that constantly use energy, even when not charging these components.

However, I equally think that businesses and individuals are to blame. Many companies have a policy of leaving the computers on overnight, when they could be turned off.

Education, as always, is key, and a good way to make people realize the effect of leaving their equipment on is to show how much you could save in terms of money. This piece at Gizmodo shows you how much energy and money is used by your games console.