TechSoup has been working on the strangely difficult problem of increasing the volume of five-year-old-and-newer computers donated to our Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) program and also to other refurbishers that supply IT equipment to schools, nonprofits, and low-income families for some years now. In RCI we accept bulk donations of 100 or more computers at a time.

When we published our Islands in the Wastestream report on the state of the noncommercial computer refurbishing field in 2004, one of our essential findings was that a lack of steady donated computer supplies is one of the primary inhibitors to the computer reuse field. It was true then and it's still true now, especially in recessionary times when companies are either extending the leases on their IT equipment or simply holding on to the computers they have beyond the normal three to four years they ordinarily keep them.

It is much greener to keep your electronics running rather than recycling them. Planet Green and Treehugger have gathered together how-to tips and videos to keep your electronic gadgets running longer.

This will also save you and your organization money, if you don't have to replace your stuff every 12-18 months, like the average U.S. consumer.

This post is by Steve Longenecker, who is a principal infrastructure consultant at Community IT Innovators in Washington, DC. Community IT Innovators, or CITI is an employee-owned, triple bottom-line company that provides computer tech support to nonprofits and socially responsible businesses. They're an important green IT practitioner in the U.S.

When one of CITI's clients needed to replace their two servers we set them up with a single server with virtualization software on it. The single server replaced an old domain controller that authenticated users and also hosted Microsoft Exchange for email and provided file and printer sharing. The other was their old terminal server that allowed users to access applications and documents on a shared network hard drive. These are very common functions for server computers.

Our clients primarily use Windows server for their server software.

Just last week, TechSoup officially has a new donor partner — Sun Microsystems — which has started donating remanufactured Sun Fire X4100 M2 x64 servers to eligible nonprofits and libraries through TechSoup. These are robust, factory remanufactured 2.5 GHz computer servers that have hot-swappable hard drives, power supplies, and fans. If one essential part of the server fails, it can be replaced with minimal downtime. These servers come with the Sun Solaris 10 operating system, but will work with other operating systems and also with virtualization software that allows a single server to do the work of multiple servers.

Do you forget to shut down your computer at night or put it to sleep while you are away at a meeting? Using power management on your PC can help you. If you aren't satisfied with the built in power-management tools that come with your PC (sorry Mac users, this tool isn't for you), check out Edison, a free tool for individuals to load on their computer. If you are looking for a more comprehensive solution for your office, one option is Surveyor, also by Verdiem.

Last month, TechSoup Talks hosted a free one-hour webinar on ways your nonprofit or library can use new affordable telecommunication tools like Voice over IP (VoIP), virtual PBX, and virtual private networking (VPN) to reduce your need to travel and better enable telecommuting and virtual meetings.

This week EcoGeek reported on a new kinetic energy-based charger called the nPower PEG (personal energy generator) by Tremont Electric. It immediately converts kinetic energy to electricity and feeds it to your gadgets (cell phones, mp3 players, etc).

It is also relatively small (9 ounces | 9 inches long x 1.5 inches in diameter) so you can throw it in your backpack or strap it to your bike and go.

Matthew Halden is the Manager of TechSoup's Environmental Product Distribution Programs which include the Community Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher Program, the Refurbished Computer Initiative, and our IKON remanufactured office equipment program. Matthew combines environmental zeal with good business sense in this rare peek into his world with an update on the impact TechSoup's RCI program is having on the world and nonprofit pocketbooks.

Our RCI program (Refurbished Computer Initiative), keeps computers out of landfills, gets much needed hardware resources into the hands of nonprofits and libraries, and saves them money to boot.

In April 2009, RCI had our single-biggest month ever for since the start of the program. "Just how big was it?" you might ask. Well, to help paint the picture, I've compiled some data below to give you a better sense of just how far we've come in the last couple of years, both for April and RCI as a whole.

In the US, there is no national system to ensure the proper collection and disposition of reusable electronic equipment or end-of-life e-waste disposal. It is, perhaps, a sign of the times that on Thursday, May 28 2009 the US Congress is going to clean out its closets and hold a discarded electronics collection event for the first time in its 220 year history.

The event will be on Thursday, May 28 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern and people from congressional offices will be schlepping any electronic items with a plug or battery over to the National Mall at the corner of 3rd Street, NW and Pennsylvania Ave. The electronics recycling and asset recovery company, Redemtech, has been chosen to do the collection event for Congress. They are also TechSoup's refurbishment partner for our Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI).

All collected equipment with data storage will be swept clean, and all equipment that is old or broken will be end-of-life recycled without being exported, incinerated, or being sent to a landfill. The event will have something additional that many e-waste collection events don't have — a robust charitable reuse component.

Redemtech has been working with the Green the Capitol office at the US House of Representatives, whose mission is to reduce carbon emissions, save energy, and make the House a model of sustainability. Congressional staffers from the House E-Waste Working Group have also been involved in the project. They were very receptive to Redemtech's request to optimize the charitable reuse aspect of the event.

As a major asset recovery company, Redemtech readily champions electronics reuse, often citing recent Gartner statistics on the topic:

Trying to pull a group of people together for a meeting, but they are spread out all over town, or the state or even the world? Instead of banging your head against the wall, consider following Tena Hanson's lead. Tena is the Director of the Milford Public Library in Iowa and she uses Doodle to schedule her meetings remotely. In her blog post called "Schedule, organize, plan! Save time, money, and the environment," she also discusses how they poll their board members and other constituents using SurveyMonkey. This can save you lots of paper and time behind the wheel if people can efficiently respond in their own time online.