Environmental initiatives can equal huge savings to your organization. And it will be your IT department that will lead the way!I turn off the office lights. Somebody turns them back on. I turn them off once more. Somebody else comes along to turn them back on. We could do this all day long; what is an environmentally responsible person to do? With daylight streaming into our office space I see no reason why we need to have blazing faux lighting. Personally I'd rather have natural light to work by, but like the green issue itself, there are those willing to turn off and those wishing to stay with the status quo.
Green Biz: a new approach to businessThere are many ways in which green concepts can permeate an organization. Big or small, the main ingredient is the willingness to look at things from a new eco-friendly viewpoint. This new perspective can, and should, extend beyond the paperless office concept to using more energy efficient computers. Some good examples of companies thinking green: at a supply management conference one of the speakers was from Nike. Addressing the land-fill crises the speaker asked, "What if we took the attitude that we lease our shoes and they come back to us when the user is done with them?" IBM recently launched Project Big Green, a program that will invest $1 billion US per year to dramatically increase its own energy efficiency in all of its data centres across six continents. The ultimate goal will be to save more than five billion kilowatt hours of energy every year, thereby saving $450 million over a five year period.
In other words, going green is not only good for the planet, but your company's bank account, too.
Finding the Green in the GreenData Centres – a recent study,
Energy Efficiency in the Data Centre, surveyed over 2,000 Fortune companies from C-level executives to senior vice presidents, with company revenue ranging from $1 billion to over $40 billion US. The study found 55 percent of respondents currently have a green data centre strategy in place. Since data centres generate an enormous amount of heat and, therefore, require expensive cooling systems, it stands to reason that it should be the first cost-savings category to be reviewed. Reducing the number of servers saves operating costs and reduces the need for air conditioners. With a typical data centre measuring 25,000-square-feet, the savings can be significant.
However, some IT departments haven't embraced this shift because they fear that it will result in staff reductions, but the role of IT is actually going to increase. Out of necessity IT professionals will begin to focus on designing, implementing and tweaking more ecofriendly equipment and operations.
Reduce overall power usage – according to a study by the Rocky Mountain Institute energy usage can be reduced by 75 - 90 percent by applying existing technologies, without impacting our lifestyles. One being studied is embedded intelligence, which automatically controls lighting and other appliances, based on occupancy and usage patterns. Studies have shown successful reduction in both energy output and associated costs. For example, intelligent sensors installed in an office building can turn off the lights when no movement has been detected for some time (nighttime). In one such application a $600 investment in sensors provided a $25,000 annual savings. Over a decade that initial $600 investment could save over $250,000 – that's a lot of green. Not to mention the positive impact on the planet – priceless!
Of course there are simple, common sense steps that every company should be taking:
- Turn off computers each evening
- Configure desktops not in use to enter sleep mode
- Tenants can ask building managers or the utility company for a report card (many provide free energy audits to help identify inefficiencies)
- Check out utility company rebate programs for upgrading energy-efficient products
- Replace regular light bulbs with fluorescent (CFL) bulbs
- Lower the thermostat two degrees when you're in the office, and lower it even further when no one is around.
Carbon Profit – according to findings from McKinsey, one of the worlds leading management consulting firms, many strategies for reducing carbon emissions can actually generate a profit.
McKinsey found that 46 percent of current reduction projects can generate savings, and if those savings were re-invested into additional low-cost reduction strategies, organizations could realize almost 70 percent of the proposed Kyoto targets for businesses, with very little effort or cost.
Green is the colour of money – General Electric's CEO Jeffrey Immelt recently declared "Green is green," as his company plans to invest $1.5 billion US in green research and development, and has a targeted goal of $20 billion US in green sales by 2010.
Wal-Mart also announced that it will spend $500 million US on sustainability projects with paybacks over four years or less. While it's true that Wal-Mart's motives are questionable, and most likely more to do with PR than a desire to save the planet, the good news is that the company has seen the bottom-line benefits and made its green message a central corporate goal. The pressure will now trickle downhill and force everyone in its supply chain to think energy efficiency or suffer consequences (as in being dropped by the mighty chain).
Green CriticismCorporate social responsibility programs are on the rise but there's room for improvement. Over half of IT executives recently surveyed (55 percent) say their organization has at least one corporate social responsibility program that includes "green" initiatives dedicated to environmental sustainability while one quarter are beginning to address the issue. But only half (54 percent) of respondents report that their organizations frequently participate in product take-back/recycling programs from vendors, or dispose of IT equipment in an environmentally safe way, 21 percent take this action only occasionally and 20 percent seldom or never take advantage of vendor recycling programs or dispose of IT equipment in an environmentally safe way. Additionally, one third (32 percent) of respondents seldom or never take into account whether or not the products they will purchase are energy efficient or produced and distributed using sustainable processes.
Most companies still aren't measuring the impact their organization has on the environment. 61 percent of respondents report their organization doesn't currently measure its carbon footprint and only 16 percent are getting ready to do it. Of the nearly one quarter of companies that do measure their carbon footprint, only 11 percent include IT in the calculation. Only 24 percent of IT executives surveyed report that their organization monitors IT-related energy spending while half (46 percent) say their organizations have no environmental sustainability goals for IT. Not surprisingly given the lack of measurement, only 20 percent of IT executives surveyed have metrics to document their progress toward "greening" their IT department.
Shamefully, Canada is the most inefficient economy amount the G8 countries – the only less efficient economies are Iceland, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates – ouch! We consume roughly the same amount of energy per person as in the United States, but produce 20 percent less GDP for energy input.
According to Jim Harris in a recent issue of Backbone magazine, "When the Conservative government attacks Kyoto, it is defending gross energy inefficiency. As the rest of the world's economies dramatically improve, Canada falls further behind. The good news is that Canada's grossly energy inefficient economy offers a huge opportunity to radically improve, protecting jobs and the economy. Failing to do so creates a ticking time bomb in terms of inevitable job loss. Becoming the most energy efficient economy globally would create hundreds of thousands of new "green collar" jobs in Canada, and insulate our economy from job loss."
Mr. Harris further writes, "GM, Ford and Chrysler have actively resisted government-regulated fuel efficiency standards in both Canada and the U.S. If, instead, they had embraced efficiency, their sales would not have plummeted as the price of oil has risen dramatically."
Organizations that are still trying to figure out whether green makes sense for them aren't reaping the benefits of the current momentum and risk missing the boat entirely. A natural starting point is the IT department for both energy efficiency and related cost savings. It's time for all companies to hop on the green wagon – even if it's turning out office lights on a sunny day for now, because any step is still a step forward.
Exclusive to Bitflow Software Inc. by Trish King
