Note: Telstra is Australia's telecommunications giant.

Telstra is set to reduce greenhouse emissions by about 646 tonnes of C02(e) a year simply by switching off screensavers on about 36,000 computers. At midnight on June 2, the company removed all corporate screensavers from its Windows XP laptops and desktop computers and replaced them with a black screensaver.

Screensavers were designed originally to conserve older computer screens that would be damaged by leaving the same areas illuminated for long periods. Modern screens don't require the protection and screensavers have evolved predominately for entertainment and communication. Telstra's public policy supremo Phil Burgess said: "Removing screensavers from our computers is a simple initative; however the financial and environmental benefits are significant".

If they do this, change the corporate buying policy to energy efficient screens in the future then some good things are happening. But compared to how much power telecommunications drains from the grid its small fries.

Theres still alot more that they need to be doing, but something is better than nothing.

A black screensaver uses the same power as a colour one, the backlight and all components of the display are still switched on.

^ bingo.

when the screen is black the monitor backlight is still on, the pixels are just blacked out. put a black image on the screen and turn off the light, you will see a glow. magic?

they need to make the monitors switch off, but journalists are fucking retarded about anything other than using alliteration for headlines. telstra probably said that they would use energy saving screensavers (ie, monitor standby) but it was misinterpreted by some apple using cock.