“Driving green initiatives in IT must come from the top, so the environmental impact is considered in everything we do,” says Ian Dyson, chief information officer of The Co-operative Group.

Green awareness permeates the company in fields such as travel, retail and financial and legal services. And that was recognised last month when the organisation won the Green Retailer of the Year award from trade magazine The Grocer.

“We are very proud of the award,” says Dyson. “It recognises how we drive environmental awareness in our trading groups. We do not have an official written policy, but we are very serious about being green. It is not spin; being environmentally aware fits with our ethical stance.”

The commitment is highlighted in a “sustainability pledge” on the group’s web site and in an annual environmental audit, published in a sustainability report.

About 98 per cent of the company’s energy is derived from renewable sources. Carbon emissions from energy consumption have been cut by 89 per cent since 2003, while own-brand packaging has been reduced by 58 tonnes since 2006.

Dyson understands the huge role IT can play in reaching green targets, and is undertaking a series of green IT initiatives. “I encourage creative green thinking in IT, and with any new technology its environmental effect is assessed,” – see Taking an automated approach to green IT, below.

A new, less power-hungry server room for the trading group will exploit green technology wherever possible. In 2007, the merger between the Co-operative Group and United Co-operatives was completed ­ – and the requirement for a new server installation is part of the integration programme.

“We are building a new server room and we are considering the environment in the technology we use to ensure it is designed to decrease overall power consumption and rack space,” says Dyson.

Cooling technology will be used, the server room will be pressure-sealed, and virtualisation and storage area network (SAN) technology is being installed.

“We have already virtualised 40 Intel servers in the past four weeks using VMware software; they have now been decommissioned. We plan to virtualise more and expect to retire 200 to 300 servers in this way,” says Dyson.

“But there is still a lot of work to do ­ – so far we have picked off the easiest targets, such as file store servers and servers with low-end applications, to get moving. Now we are more aware of what we are doing, the reins are off and we are looking at medium-end applications.

“In addition, we are implementing SAN technology with two HP enterprise virtual array SANs which will help to reduce our overall footprint and power consumption.”

Another initiative will see the deployment of blade technology, says Dyson. “We have a large application that runs our warehouse and we will use blades to operate that system as they offer more processing power using less rack space,” he says.

The notion of measuring how effectively green technology works is promoted ­ – subject to it not becoming intrusive. For example, the group uses environmental tools in the server room to take readings run by the facilities department. “It is important to see the benefit of undertaking green initiatives provided it does not require a lot of resources to measure improvements,” says Dyson.

Outside the server room, Dyson is concerned about managing power consumption of PCs. Two suites of software are being used as a hangover from the merger and the group is keen to standardise on one.

“The Altiris suite of software helps us remotely control and update desktops and PCs, and we can power them down after 15 minutes of inactivity across the whole estate. We use two types of software but plan to standardise on Altiris because we like its patch management functionality,” says Dyson, who believes introducing technology that turns off PCs must be delicately managed from a user perspective.

“If an employee has gone to lunch, it makes sense to power down their PC, but to overcome any impatience, it is important to communicate to colleagues why and when this type of technology is necessary,” says Dyson.

A green technology that is normally more palatable for users is videoconferencing, as the positive impact it has on their work/life balance overrides initial hesitancy at getting to grips with unfamiliar technology and a change of meeting culture.

Videoconferencing has been used by United Co-operatives, and the enlarged trading group will explore it further. Dyson says the group is looking for places where Polycom videoconferencing use can be extended.

“We have many regional offices in the UK and we have a large footprint because of operational management having to travel between sites and to head office. We will engage with the business to see where regional meetings can be facilitated over videoconferencing,” says Dyson.

“We will pick where it is more efficient to use videoconferencing instead of face-to-face meetings initially. Although videoconferencing has received bad press regarding the user experience in the past, the quality of our BT audio and visual network is up to the job and we are confident people will become comfortable with it very quickly and happy that it reduces their travel time.”

Flexible working is another option for employees that Dyson is keen to pursue further, slashing travel time, petrol and pollution.

“Flexible working offers employees remote access to the trading group system and is part of our unified communications strategy,” he says.

“We are looking at how applications will be delivered and videoconferencing will feed into this. Presently desktop videoconferencing is used within the information systems department and its use will spread throughout the business.”

Dyson also foresees big change in other areas. For example, the Co-op will review the number of its administrative centres and printing devices.

“We want to reduce the number of printers and instead use multifunctional devices that act as photocopiers, printers and fax machines,” says Dyson.

Management software will also be used to keep track of the volume of printing that goes through devices. Dyson says the group will be able to see which departments use devices excessively and embark on an education programme.

“We do not know what people are using printers for, and we must target departments that need education or introduce other technology such as a document management system,” he says.