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As Energy Prices Skyrocket and Environmental Awareness Grows, CEO is Responsible for Energy Initiatives

Posted on: Monday, 9 June 2008, 12:00 CDT

With the price of oil surpassing $130 per barrel, the responsibilities of the C-suite routinely include energy management. A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive(R) on behalf of 1E, a global provider of Windows Management software and services, revealed that a third of Fortune 1000 executives expect the responsibility to fall to the CEO.

The survey asked more than 150 executives from Fortune 1000 companies to identify the person at their company who is primarily responsible for managing corporate power consumption. The largest proportion of executives responded that this responsibility lies with the CEO (32 percent).

"As companies continue to grapple with who 'owns' the corporate power consumption responsibility, it has become clear that energy management is perceived as a C-suite concern," said Sumir Karayi, chief executive officer of 1E. "It appears that few companies task officers with company-wide power management - especially companies with multiple offices and thousands of employees. By default, the responsibility falls to the CEO."

"As concerns about spiraling energy prices and global climate change mount, employees and shareholders increasingly are looking directly to the CEO to take charge and reduce the company's energy use and environmental footprint," said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency world-wide. Callahan added, "Leadership from the top is a critical component of success to improving the company's 'bottom line' through reduced energy bills and its environmental stewardship through reduced emissions."

The survey found that CEOs at smaller companies, those with 10,000 or less employees, are more likely to be identified as the person responsible for power consumption than at larger companies (42 percent as opposed to 18 percent).

In larger companies, the greatest proportion of executives (21 percent) report the CIO as most responsible for managing power consumption.

From a regional perspective, executives in western states* were much more likely to hold the CEO responsible for power consumption (62 percent) than those in the Northeast (27 percent), South (17 percent) and Midwest (16 percent).

"Though facility managers have traditionally owned the power bill, we are not surprised to see executives at large companies identifying the CIO as most responsible for power consumption," added Mr. Karayi. "Increasingly, energy is becoming an IT issue."

According to the survey results, other titles that hold primary responsibility for energy use across a company included CIO (15 percent); facility or building manager (14 percent); chief responsibility, environment or energy officer (13 percent); and the CTO (12 percent).

1E regularly works with Fortune 1000 companies to reduce power consumption through automated PC power management. The company's NightWatchman solution addresses the challenge of shutting down PCs in a large network where users require different settings for working and out-of-office hours. Now in its fifth generation, NightWatchman uses reliable and proven technology to enable centralized, scheduled shut down of PCs, enabling organizations to enforce corporate energy saving policies. The solution saves an average of $50 per PC per year and typically delivers ROI within three to six months.

* Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

About the Survey

This survey was conducted by telephone within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of 1E Ltd. between March 13 and April 24, 2008 among 154 executives from a broad range of industries, services, locales, and sizes of companies using the Executive Omnibus, a nationwide survey of at least 150 leading executives at Fortune 1000 companies. Data from this sample are not weighted and are therefore representative only of the body of individuals surveyed. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Findings based on subgroups of the total sample (e.g., by company size, region of the country) should be interpreted as qualitative, or directional, only.

About 1E

1E is a global Windows Management software and services company. Our expertise in providing leading-edge automation solutions, which reduce complexity, management costs and power consumption, has earned us the trust and confidence of over 8 million users across more than 1,000 businesses in 42 countries worldwide. Customers include Allstate Insurance, Blue Cross, British Airways, Dell Inc, HSBC, ING Investment Management, Marks & Spencer, Microsoft, Nestle, Reed Elsevier, SABMiller, Syngenta, the US Air Force on behalf of the Pentagon, Verizon Wireless and Wachovia. Please visit www.1e.com.

Source: Business Wire

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