Goodbye to standby

"Turn Green!" headlines Falter, which devotes its front page to recent gains made by environmentalist parties in Europe. In the wake of the Green successes in regional elections in Germany’s Baden-Wurtemberg and Zurich Switezerland, the Vienna weekly reports on the Green "energy turning point," which has paved the way for an “emerging profession”: the consultants that evaluate the cost of energy wasted by coffee machines and hi-fis that are left permanently on standby. "More and more people are calling on these consultants because they do not want to squander precious energy," reports the magazine, which points out that "Green solution providers have been overwhelmed by new business in the wake of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima." That said, the phenomenon has prompted a number of questions: How can private individuals make a difference? Should we have stricter policies? Will the recourse to Green energy result in a drop in living standards? Falter advocates a "simple solution: raising the price of electricity" and calls on "politicians to announce the real need for change without sparking public alarm." Future policy on energy conservation should be summarised by the simple slogan: "Goodbye to standby."