Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of numerous tiny nodes powered by very small batteries that are normally non-rechargeable. Many researchers have thus focused on the issue of optimizing energy efficiency in WSNs. Their research have shown that routing operation is in fact the main energy expensive operation in the WSN because it tends to utilize maximum energy resources in the network. A good number of routing protocols have been designed in the past in the context of energy efficiency/optimization using different approaches under certain predefined control conditions. We propose in this paper an energy optimization protocol called Position Response Routing Protocol (PRRP) that incorporated the global positioning system (GPS). Our simulation results show a significant improvement in the life cycle of the WSN with respect to the proposed protocol. © 2011 IEEE.