Green IT Can Save Money, Too

Many companies put green info tech on the back burner during the recession, but using less energy can be a boost to the bottom line in tough times

By Sophie Curtis

It's no surprise that for some companies green initiatives are dropping down the list of IT priorities. In a recent silicon.com survey, more than a quarter of respondents admitted green IT was off the agenda because of the recession.

But many organisations have found the key is to align green goals with broader cost-cutting initiatives—which are definitely in vogue with CIOs and CFOs. In some cases government policies are already giving businesses a shove in the right direction. For example, in July 2008, the UK government informed 10,000 businesses that they could be affected by the Carbon Reduction Commitment—a climate change and energy-saving scheme that will take effect in 2010.

Under the scheme, organisations which use more than roughly £500,000 of electricity per year (including hotel chains, large local authorities and supermarket chains) will have to purchase allowances equivalent to their carbon emissions each year, giving them a direct financial incentive to get greener.

But even for organisations that don't come into that group, green initiatives can have benefits for the bottom line.

Getting green on the desktop…
So where to start? The most common steps that companies are taking to implement green policies are related to desktop infrastructure. Research group Forrester (FORR) claims that 55 per cent of energy consumed by UK firms is outside of the datacentre, so centralising management of the desktop environment is essential.

Cameron Green, green IT partnerships manager at environmental charity Global Action Plan, said having users turn off their PCs and monitors when they leave work, and utilising the energy management features of operating systems, can cut energy use per PC by 40 per cent.

Similarly with printers, timer switches can be installed to turn printers off automatically when they are not being used. Using recycled paper, dropping desktop printers in favour of shared multi-function devices and duplex printing also all have a role to play in reducing print wastage. "Follow-me printing, where a user has to confirm the print job at the device can reduce paper usage by up to 30 per cent through reducing errant print jobs," said Green.

One of the most wasteful practices in the desktop space is over-zealous hardware refresh cycles. Companies often renew their office hardware every three years without necessarily questioning the business case of upgrades, staff retraining and other overheads involved.

"Thin client technology can extend your refresh cycles, whilst reducing energy and waste from your computing infrastructure," advised Green. "The alternative is to simply extend your hardware refresh cycle to five years, or whenever it is ascertained the business needs of your users aren't being met."

…and in the datacentre
Although these efforts should be welcomed, the long-term effects of these initiatives are limited, and cutting energy consumption within datacentres is potentially much more meaningful.

Server virtualisation, storage consolidation, upgrades to cooling systems and purchasing energy-efficient servers are all top priorities.

"At the datacentre level, the main thing that has happened over the last couple of years is that, whereas previously people didn't care too much about the efficiency of their datacentres, suddenly everybody cares," said Gartner analyst Simon Mingay.

However, while the increase in awareness is an important step, the implementation of energy-saving measures needs to be carefully managed.

"What people have been doing for the most part so far has been what I would describe as the comfortable and the familiar," said Mingay. "For the most part… they haven't actually sat back and asked, what are the material issues that we should be addressing?"

A major contributor to this issue is the lack of understanding among many IT professionals about the best way to optimise energy-saving processes.

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