That's the question a group of IT vendors is asking as it challenges its own employees and government workers to turn off their PCs, monitors and printers at the end of the workday to save power.

Next Thursday -- Aug. 27 -- is , an awareness-raising event sponsored by Citrix, HP, Intel and Microsoft to encourage employees to hit their power strips as they head out the door for the evening.

"The objective for the day is to raise awareness of what individual consumers of IT can do to impact green IT initiatives, whether in government or private industry," says Tom Simmons, area vice president for Citrix Federal.

Simmons says most IT departments focus on through server virtualization and efficient air conditioning systems, but they don't focus on the client side of green IT, which is a significant portion of an organization's overall electricity usage.