23 Oct 2008
With steeper energy prices and the focus on climate change issues at an all-time high, virtually everyone is concerned with reducing energy consumption.
Information and communications technology (ICT) plays an important part in the green equation industry analysts estimate that ICT accounts for two per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
As many organisations begin looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact and cut costs, businesses are weighing up green technologies to ensure they will not take a financial or productivity hit in the name of sustainability.
One of the simplest changes individuals and businesses can make is with their computing practices. Many people don’t realise that the average desktop PC wastes nearly half the power it draws from the wall socket as heat. Similarly, the average server wastes 30 to 40 per cent of its power.
Through electricity usage, a computer running 10 or more hours per day can account for as much as one-tenth of a car’s annual CO2 emissions. With more than a billion computers in use worldwide today, the resulting CO2 emissions are huge.
Last year, leading technology companies joined forces with WWF to tackle the problem of IT energy waste and formed the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
The not-for-profit organisation is dedicated to cutting the power consumption and energy costs of PCs and servers in half.
It provides a framework and resources for businesses to take a first step toward greening their IT infrastructure. Through the use of power management features and incorporating energy-efficient systems into procurement cycles, organisations can begin implementing more sustainable and energy-efficient IT policies.
That will lead to business practices that can cut both costs and carbon emissions.
Lorie Wigle is president of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, and will be speaking at the Green IT Expo on 4-5 November.
IT is being used more and more by businesses to cut back on their carbon footprints. Great efforts are being made by organisations to use solutions such as video-conferencing and VOIP all in a bid to save energy and prove their green credentials. However, increasing pressure for green credentials will create a significant cost for UK business unless organisations get their asset registers in order.
Existing green policies such as the WEEE directive and measuring carbon footprints assume a level of asset management far beyond that achieved by the majority of UK business. By linking the asset register to a document management system organisations can create the required audit trail, gaining valuable insight into their own assets and adapting to the green economy.
Businesses should be taking more responsibility for ethically and environmentally sound disposal of WEEE and there's no excuse for flouting the legislation when using the asset register makes compliance so straightforward. Even with complex legislation, there is a very simple way of dealing with it - through the fixed asset register.
Without a consistent, corporate wide approach to recording comprehensive fixed asset information, organisations will not be able to report upon their asset performance - from carbon emissions to recycling figures. It is only by capturing increasing detail about an asset's lifecycle that organisations can begin to provide the corporate visibility required to underpin CSR strategies.
Yours faithfully,
Karen Conneely
Group Commercial Manager
Real Asset Management
www.realassetmgt.com
Posted by: Karen Conneely 11 Feb 2009
Reducing energy consuption *is* the factor most everyone is ignoring. However, replacing outdated technology takes time and money. Money, that most of us now do not have.
Perhaps you could convince Microsoft and Apple (arguably the two 'major' players in the OS field) to rewrite all their code to accomplish the same tasks tomorrow on dual-core Atom chips as they do today on quad-cores.
Then, 'convince' ALL software developers to follow suit.
This would cost A LOT of money for the developers. Then the consumers would have to spend A LOT of money to purchase the new software.
At a minimum, this transition would take 5 years or more.
Posted by: Craig Gorsuch 22 Jan 2009
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