I agree with what both of you have said. It's possible that, in the not-too-distant future, "green programming" will become a new field. If you can design an architecture (both hardware and software) that demonstrably reduces power costs, that's a valuable skill.
And, I'd argue, on two fronts: lower costs for the company, plus good marketing. Every forward-thinking company (at least from what I've observed) are eager to brand themselves as "carbon neutral", "eco-friendly", etc.