Dell, Facebook, Alliance Partner to Develop, Promote LivingEfficiently.org

New Online Consumer Education Campaign Builds on Alliance's Decades of Advocacy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Alliance to Save Energy is undertaking a trio of initiatives to raise the profile of energy efficiency nationally and globally in the digital age:

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• Entering into an innovative partnership with its newest Associate member, Facebook, that employs the explosive power of the social network to empower consumers worldwide to save money with energy efficiency;
• Unveiling www.livingefficiently.org, the Alliance's new consumer website brimming with practical, "how-to" energy efficiency advice; and
• Airing a month-long series of videos touting "better ways to save energy and money" on CBS's 520-square-foot Super Screen in New York City's Times Square.

"We are thrilled that the force and reach of today's technology allows us to take these 'three leaps forward' to expand and enhance our global presence and the global awareness of energy efficiency," declared Alliance President Kateri Callahan. "The societal benefits of engaging consumers in a war against energy waste are enormous, including bolstering the global economy, creating good jobs and protecting the environment."

The Alliance-Facebook partnership will capitalize on each party's strengths and expertise for a broad consumer awareness campaign highlighting the importance of energy efficiency. The campaign includes the donation to the Alliance of $500,000-worth of advertising on the Facebook platform, collaboration on energy efficiency technology, participation in joint events and promotion of the Alliance's new consumer website, LivingEfficiently.org.

"We at the Alliance are excited about these opportunities to use Facebook's unique, broad-reaching channels to encourage consumers to become more energy-efficient in their daily lives," Callahan commented. "We are confident that this partnership will allow the Alliance to greatly increase the awareness and adoption of technologies and practices that can put money back into the pockets of Facebook's 500 million users worldwide."

"We believe that environmental responsibility starts with living efficiently.  That's why we have invested thousands of people hours and tens of millions of dollars into efficiency technology for our own operations," said Jonathan Heiliger, VP of technical operations for Facebook.

"We are excited to partner with the Alliance to Save Energy to raise awareness more broadly of the critical importance of energy efficiency and to help share some of the technology we have developed to improve energy efficiency practices throughout the world."

Website Sponsored by Dell

The Alliance's new Living Efficiently website, sponsored by Dell Inc., offers tips, product information and news geared to the areas where consumers live their daily lives: at home, at school, at work and on the go.

"We are grateful to Alliance Associate Dell for sponsoring LivingEfficiently.org with a generous donation of $50,000 for the site's development," noted Callahan.

For the website's debut, the Alliance tapped the speedway savvy of NASCAR driver Leilani Munter. Videos featuring her tips for saving money while on the go will be posted in six weekly installments at http://livingefficiently.org/news/leilani-munter-speeding-doesnt-save.

"LivingEfficiently.org was designed with the consumer and the consumer's pocketbook in mind," Callahan noted. "The site also will give consumers the opportunity to contribute to the Alliance's broader economic, environmental and energy security goals by sharing their own energy efficiency success stories and commenting on the stories posted by others.

"Making the site easy to use, interesting, informative and comprehensive was paramount as we developed Living Efficiently," Callahan continued. "We think the result is a valuable resource that will continue to evolve as the Alliance pursues its goal of making the United States the world's most energy-efficient nation."

Times Square Advertising

Coinciding with the Facebook partnership and the consumer website launch – and just in time for the tens of millions passing through Times Square as the holiday shopping season gets underway – the Alliance is sponsoring a month-long series of live-action videos on the CBS Super Screen there beginning November 1.

"We anticipate that the workers, shoppers and tourists flocking to Times Square will find our videos both compelling and informative," Callahan said.

The 15-second live-action spots will run a minimum of 540 times throughout November, playing once every hour, or 18 times a day, for 30 days. Neutron Media estimates that more than 1.5 million people walk by the CBS Super Screen daily.

Dell and Facebook's Energy Efficiency Efforts

Dell is committed to helping businesses achieve energy efficiency in their IT environments, and its Energy Smart work stations, desktops and notebooks can reduce power consumption by as much as 95 percent. Dell also engages in partnerships with regulatory bodies and standards organizations to help drive future innovation around energy efficient products.

Facebook's energy efficiency track record includes the recent development by company engineers of programming language HipHop for PHP, which reduces CPU usage on web servers by roughly 50 percent.  Less CPU usage means fewer servers, resulting in less overall energy usage.  

In addition to developing this groundbreaking software, Facebook took the unprecedented step of making this technology freely available to any company, potentially reducing the computer and power requirements for large-scale computer systems around the world.  

Facebook also brings unique expertise in managing efficient data centers, an increasingly important backbone of the Internet economy and a growing consumer of energy resources.

For its part, the Alliance advances energy efficiency across all sectors of the global economy through policy, research, technology deployment, communications and education initiatives.  The Alliance has a three-decade track record of conducting award-winning consumer education and outreach campaigns.

"We know that our partnership with Facebook will open up exciting opportunities to engage and educate new audiences, and that both Facebook and Dell will help us advance our shared goal of delivering an energy-efficient future," said Callahan.

The Alliance to Save Energy is a coalition of prominent business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy worldwide to benefit consumers, the environment, the economy and national security.

SOURCE Alliance to Save Energy