I spend a lot of time thinking about computing efficiency, but there's an interesting statistic that really blows the doors off of what computing represents to the world's sustainability.  According to Gartner, if you measure all of the energy savings that computing can bring to our planet, 2% is from making computing platforms more efficient.  A whopping 98% stems from how we utilize computing resources make how we work and live more efficient.  The sources of this efficiency are vast but many come immediately to mind...telecommunting, design of products via workstations vs. physical prototype models, downloading music via iTunes negating the need to produce millions of CDs.  If more proof were needed you just need to look through the government stimulous package to see how critical the role technology plays in driving more efficiencies across industries.

When we created the Data Center Efficiency Challenge we specifically pointed out that part of this competition would be judged not on the efficiency of the datacenter but on how the datacenter was making the organization more efficient.  To take this notion further we've started a new competition...on JustMeans.com...to spur more discussion on how companies are utilizing technology to re-map the way they do business for an energy-aware 21st century world.  Check it out.