Articles

You may be wondering why we encourage organizations to complete a Green IT Assessment before implementing any changes in your organization.  I'll share the rationale here and explain the benefits of completing a Green IT Assessment as the first step after setting out a project charter.

There are five main reasons - an assessment will: (1) identify information sources and gaps, (2) identify performance metrics, (3) set a baseline for reporting results and (4) set expectations and quantify the importance to your business.

This week there has been a significant focus on e-waste and the environmental impact of manufacturing.  Significant reports on Chinese e-products manufacturing sector and the Greenpeace ranking for electronics manufacturers were released this week.  Across all articles there was a theme of calling for more action from electronics vendors.

Last week there was a focus on the impact that Green IT can have in the global climate crisis abatement strategies, political discussions on government actions as well as Gartner sharing data center best practises.  On the social side of things, FastCompany discusses a 'people-powered Internet".  These were our favourite articles and resources.

I recently had the privelege of attending a forum where Bob Willard of Sustainability Advantage gave the keynote address.  This is the second time I have had the opportunity to hear Mr. Willard speak and he certainly has gift for simplifying the business case for sustainability.  I have also referenced his books The Sustainability Advantage and The Next Sustainability Wave in many writings.  Along with his ability to simplify and quantify the business of sustainability, Mr. Willard also has a sense of humor. 

'Virtualization’ is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources (1). Virtualization, also sometimes referred to as server consolidation, is the concept of one physical computer servicing several applications and allowing each to use the same underlying hardware without interference with one another. Virtualization allows for different applications to have sufficient hardware resources - central processor units, memory and I/O, the essential physical resources to run an application.

GreenITTools.com, a Green Information Technology information portal, proudly announces the launch of the new GreenITTools.com community website. GreenITTools.com provides products and services (through Terrabytes Consulting) to help IT organizations reduce environmental impact, save money and simplify operations while doing so.

Green IT Tools.com is pleased to announced two interactive webinars focusing first on getting up to speed with Green IT and then the practical steps to assess your organization's IT impact.  We will help you to create a strategy to "Green Your IT".  The webinars will take place on November 27, 2008 at 1pm EST (10am PST) and December 4, 2008.

Webinar Description - Introduction to Green IT - November 27, 2008

We are proud to announce the release of Version 4.0 based on the feedback and suggestions we collected during the month of September.  Thank you very much to all the past and new clients who took on the challenge of providing feedback to make a better product.

GreenITTools.com Team

In this article, we describe the high-level business case for sustainability initiatives and then discuss the opportunities for IT to contribute to sustainability initiatives and to the bottom line.

We have all seen the various energy conserving techniques proliferate on our home and business personal computers, such as the power management policies for our hard drive, monitor and system. But what about supercomputers, are they immune from this same energy efficiency future we have been headed toward? Don’t supercomputers use an enormous amount of power and incur significant cooling costs? Well, there is growing evidence that energy efficiency of supercomputers is now a growing IT issue and gaining international attention.

The field of sustainability is new to business in general and even newer for IT departments. Best practises and standards are still in the earliest stages of development. Some emerging standards and initiatives are described below. We anticipate there will be many more developments in the next 6 months.

In a recent article titled "Is Green IT Your Emporor With No Clothes", Forrester associate Doug Washburn posits that "technology is not green and never will be."  Washburn adds that although the technology itself is not green, enterprises have much to gain from greening initiatives including financial and environmental performance improvments.

GreenITTools.com is seeking IT and sustainability professionals to provide input into the next version of the Green IT Guide and the Green IT Guide and Toolkit!  We believe the best knowledge comes from the community of practise and we would like to have your input on how to make our Green IT products better!  Let us know what to add, subtract, enhance, or revamp and receive a free copy of the new version!

Green IT Tools.com and Strategic Sustainability Consulting are pleased to announced an an interactive webinar focusing on the practical steps to assess your organization's IT impact and create a strategy to "Green Your IT".  The webinar will take place on September 11, 2008 at 1pm EST (10am PST).

Register on-line through Strategic Sustainability Consulting.

Webinar Description

An article published earlier this year titled "Green carrots needed for IT chiefs" by Tim Ferguson on silicon.com has raised the issue of IT department's not being fiscally responsible for the energy consumption of their equipment.  We often come across the complaint from facility managers that IT managers are not motivated to implement energy saving programs because it does not affect their budget positively (generally there is a cost and the benefits are gained by another department).  The article points to a survey completed by Quocirca that found "less than one

On July 15, 2008, IDC, an IT research organization, release the criteria and the first 5 organizations to be certified under their new asset recovery  certification program.  Dell, HP, IBM, Intechra and Redemtech were the first U.S. companies to receive the seal of approval under the guidelines IDC has developed.

While it sounds like common sense to recycle hardware, what is not commonly known is that some recyclers do not actually recycle the materials, and a significant amount of waste is shipped to countries like India and China where components can be extracted at a lower cost.  Environmental laws in these countries, although relatively strict, are often not enforced in rural areas where this processing often occurs.

Have you ever wondered what goes into the development of the ENERGY STAR specifications and when the specifications change?  We did, so we did some research and here's what we found.

Today we have launched our brand new website complete with a slightly updated version of the Green IT Guide.  The updated version has been provided to all customers who purchased version 3.1 as it includes some useful information and does not constitute a full release.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on our new site!

GreenITTools.com Team

Xerox has released an interesting new calculator to assist customers with calculating possible improvements by optimizing an organization's printing solutions.  Xerox sales representatives are armed with a powerful calculator to assist clients but they have also posted a paired down version on their website for anyone to use.  

GreenITTools.com is proud to announce the release of Green IT Guide and Toolkit Version 3.0.  Many sections of the Guide have been updated with current information.  In addition the information provided in the many white papers that are part of the toolkit (and posted in the Articles section of the website) have been updated.

A few formulas have been fixed in the workbooks and we have tidied up some of the wording.

We have also added a second version of the Performance workbook specifically for our British customers that uses pound symbols instead of dollar signs.

Responsible purchasing policies are an excellent way for organizations to begin their Green IT efforts.  For example a company practising responsible purchasing policies set out a comprehensive set of measures that include criteria for purchasing decisions other than price such as whether or not the equipment meets emerging voluntary environmental standards and Energy Star ratings, the manufacturer’s performance in social responsibility, and waste and disposal services provided.  The EPEAT standard (as described previously) provides an important foundation for responsible pu

Small businesses have a somewhat different business case for sustainability initiatives in general and green IT is no exception.  Small businesses have a unique set of challenges and opportunities that can actually make the transition to sustainability much quicker.

For smaller businesses there are two special considerations when looking at sustainability initiatives; cash flow and flexibility.

Green IT initiatives for the IT department can be organized into four major categories; policies and performance reporting, energy consumption, strategic asset management and green business support.  Each of these is discussed below with examples.