A new industry group hopes to make the internet and network communications 1,000 times more energy efficient by 2015.

Organized by French company Alcatel-Lucent, hundreds of leaders in science and engineering working with the help of government labs have created a new global consortium dubbed Green Touch, focusing on reducing energy consumption.

Gee Rittenhouse, head of research at Bell Labs, said global networks today are consuming more energy as internet traffic expands, "equivalent to emitting about 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide gases," he said. "That's equivalent to 50 million automobiles or 20 per cent of the cars registered in the United States."

Every time a person logs onto the internet or sends a text message to a friend, energy is being used. And as new technology allows for easier and more frequent access, energy consumption will rise.

"Over the next decade, billions more people will upload and share video, images and information over public and private networks as we communicate with each other in new, rich ways," Rittenhouse said.

Green Touch says today's networks use more energy than necessary, and if left unchecked, the industry's energy usage is projected to double over the next 10 years.

The goal is to come up with ways to improve the circuits, computer codes, fibre-optic cables and other elements in the world's communications network.

Rittenhouse said a Bell Labs research team in September 2009 presented theoretical results suggesting communications networks could be 10,000 times more energy-efficient.

Alcatel-Lucent's research partner Bell Labs will lead the Green Touch initiative, which will last five years. Rittenhouse said much of the funding for Green Touch will come from governments, which were "a natural funding mechanism for universities as well as industry."

Companies like AT&T, China Mobile, Telefonica, Portugal Telecom, Swisscom and Freescale Semiconductor are among the 15 founding members.

The research labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the University of Melbourne will also participate.

The majority of the 15 founding members of Green Touch are from Western nations, though Rittenhouse said this consortium has, "an open invitation. People, competitors, other vendors, suppliers can all come to join."

"Global challenges have always been best addressed by bringing together the brightest minds in an unconstrained, creative environment," said Dr. Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy, who supports the Green Touch initiative.

By 2015, the Green Touch group hopes to grow in numbers and be able to deliver the building specifications for developing the components needed to reduce energy consumption.