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The Importance of

Green IT

“As more and more people understand what’s at stake,
they become a part of the solution, and share both in
the challenges and opportunities presented by the
climate crises.”

—Al Gore on global warming

ptg

Information Technology (IT) is at the heart of every successful modern
business. Without it, success is impossible. Yet, the pervasive deployment of
IT has had significant, unintended side effects, namely as a significant con-
tributor to the economically unsustainable worldwide dependence on fossil
fuels. The awareness of these side effects, though somewhat late in coming,
has led some successful companies to turn to a sustainable practice known as
“IT greening.” IT greening is about using IT more efficiently to achieve
reductions in energy consumption, and therefore, considering the acquisition
of energy-efficient IT solutions. Within this book, you can find details on the
environmental impact of IT, including data centers’ consumption of fossil
fuel-based electric energy. In addition, we examine many case studies,
extracting lessons learned and best practices for implementing green IT.
IT is so pervasive that energy efficiency through the implementation of
green IT has moved to center stage for many companies in their pursuit of
environmentally helpful practices. This book provides details on the impor-
tance of implementing green IT; the significant and growing role of IT and
data centers in the world’s consumption of electric energy and carbon foot-
print; and especially the case studies for “lessons learned” and the best-
practice approaches for implementing green IT.
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