Corporate America is going green. And that's good news for Verdiem, a Seattle software startup that has developed an easy way for organizations to power down or "hibernate" personal computers when they are not in use.

That simplistic idea has attracted the interest of some big-name venture backers. Today, the company plans to announce $8.33 million in venture funding led by Silicon Valley powerhouse Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Andy Rogers / P-I

Kevin Klustner is president and chief executive of Verdiem.

Ted Schlein, a partner at Kleiner Perkins who is joining the startup's board, said backing Verdiem was an easy investment decision. That's because the company, which has already attracted more than 100 customers, ranging from the City of Boston to Random House, is riding an environmental wave that is just now starting to penetrate big businesses.

"Some corporations are interested in being more green because it is good marketing, some want it for employee retention purposes' and some realize that being green actually represents a good cost savings," said Schlein. "You take all of that ... and it leads you to Verdiem."

The company, which moved from Portland to Seattle in 2003, has already helped universities, retailers and other entities save more than $34 million in energy costs. At the same time, those energy savings have reduced green house gas emissions by more than 294,000 tons.

The cost savings can be substantial. For example, The City University of New York - Verdiem's biggest customer with installations on 35,000 computers - expects to save more than $1.4 million over the next four years.

On average, the company says its Surveyor software - which costs about $25 per PC - has annual cost savings of $20 to $45 for each PC.

With more businesses starting to recognize the cost-savings and marketing advantages of green initiatives, Verdiem Chief Executive Kevin Klustner said the "market has just completely opened up."

At the end of last year, more than 95 percent of Verdiem's customers were public entities like universities and government agencies.. Now, Klustner said that more than 75 percent of the new customers signing up with Verdiem are corporations.

"It is a no-brainer first step for corporate IT to begin contributing to an overall corporate sustainability objective," said Klustner, a former Sightward and WRQ executive who joined the startup as chief executive last year.

That's also a trend observed by 1E co-founder Sumir Karayi, whose 10-year-old London company provides PC power management software to more than 850 organizations. Two years ago, Karayi said that very few corporations were discussing the environmental benefits of remotely shutting down personal computers. Most simply wanted ways to issue software patches and do other technical maintenance without losing corporate data, which 1E's NightWatchman and WakeUp products also achieve.

But Karayi, who is meeting with customers and partners in Seattle this week, said the tide has turned.

"We have seen a massive change in the focus that companies have around corporate social responsibility and, in particular, around their environmental credentials," he said.

A former Microsoft contractor, Karayi expects the market to become crowded with additional competitors who recognize the opportunity. After all, a study commissioned by 1E found that $1.7 billion could be saved in the U.S. if computers were powered down each night. That alone would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 15 million tons.

At this time, Karayi believes that 1E has a decent lead in the market. Profitable and with $20 million in sales last year, 1E boasts 20 customers - including HSBC and Verizon - that have more than 100,000 installations.

Other players include Faronics, a San Ramon, Calif.-based company that can shutdown or hibernate computers based on CPU, disk or application activity. Meanwhile, Microsoft has improved the energy saving settings in its new operating system, Vista.

Despite the competition, Klustner believes the market is huge and growing.

The 35-person company, which plans to double in size this year, will use the money to build out the sales operation, expand internationally and add new features to the product.

Verdiem is trying to develop ways to understand when groups of people have just stepped away from their computer for an extended period versus leaving for the entire day.

"We observe their usage patterns and then invoke more aggressive or less aggressive energy states depending on their usage patterns," he said. "That is where the simple idea becomes really elegant and the complexity of doing it right becomes a real barrier to entry and an IP advantage for us."

Verdiem has yet to make any money, with Klustner saying that "profit is secondary right now to market expansion."

That's part of the reason for the fresh round of capital.

Because green IT is so hot right now, Verdiem had little trouble raising the money. It received multiple offers, with Klustner saying "it was a fun story to tell."

In addition to Kleiner Perkins, investors in the deal included Phoenix Partners, Falcon Partners, Catamount Ventures, Angeleno Group and venture capitalist Steve Westly.

Westly, the former controller for the state of California, said that energy management is booming right now with two companies, Comverge and EnerNoc, recently completing IPOs.

"An awful lot of people are looking at the energy management area. It is great to look at things like solar and wind energy, but the simplest and smartest thing you can do is reduce how much energy you use," he says.