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Even as a 13-year-old schoolboy I enjoyed the irony that, mere months after the UK/Irish contingent known as Band Aid released that song with the catchy anthem "Feed the World", the Americans followed suit with We are the World. But a less amusing irony is that, before 1985 and ever since, the Americans have indeed been feasting on the world's resources - according to International Energy Agency figures, in 2004, the US consumed more fossil fuel than the whole of the European Union.

There's little room for finger pointing, however. On average, each Brit was responsible for 8.98 tonnes of CO2 emissions - it may compare well to the 19.73 tonnes of our US cousins, but is still, according to any scientist not sponsored by oil companies, unsustainable.

Perhaps unexpectedly, though, 2007 does bring with it some good energy news, with one coming in the form of Windows Vista. Roughly 4% of the UK's energy consumption is directly linked to computers, and much of that is due to PCs being left idling for hours on end. With Vista PCs set to go into standby after 20 minutes by default, huge amounts of power and heat could be saved. And, of course, that means lower power bills too - anything up to £80 per year, depending on your PC. Businesses should benefit still further, as well-administered PCs that take advantage of Group Policy can also be set to be much more aggressive in their power management in Vista.

We need to be more aggressive with monitors too. Although

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energy-guzzling CRTs are now largely history, the new batch of high-resolution, widescreen TFTs consume almost 40% more energy than the screens they're likely to replace (see p118 for our Complete guide to green computing). Set them to switch off after three minutes of inactivity, and the savings will add up.

It isn't only Microsoft that's switching its attention to energy conservation. Recently, Intel has made huge strides with its Core 2 Duo processors, while AMD has boasted energy-efficient CPUs for years - VIA even more so, albeit at the expense of performance.

The blindly optimistic might even point to videoconferencing as a triumph of technology for the environment, but I see little sign of this in reality. Everyone is well aware of the benefits of a proper handshake when it comes to establishing trust in a relationship; no matter how good the picture, a videoconference feels impersonal by comparison.

This is just one of the reasons why we still jump on planes at a moment's notice. Last year, I flew abroad on five occasions, three of them on business. The companies that organised the trips could, of course, have opted for a webcast, but they know how vital face-to-face contact is.

All this may have done wonders for PC Pro's relationship with the top companies, but it's done no good whatsoever for my emissions, if you'll excuse the imagery. I was doing pretty well until I stepped aboard those planes, mainly because I travel into work by a combination of bike, train and bus. Most of the time, I only use the car for our weekly shop.

In fact, the last "leisure" drive I took was a family visit to the Living Rainforest (www.livingrainforest.org), which turns a few hundred square feet of Berkshire into a little piece of Amazonian rainforest. The transition from a freezing cold English winter day into a humid jungle environment, where you're surrounded by exotic plants and occasionally accosted by wild butterflies and birds, is really quite bizarre.