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The Greening of IT
10 How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment

All Companies Can Take Basic Steps Toward Green IT

According to Gartner research firm, the green wave has only begun to rise.
The research company predicts that in 2009, more than one-third of all IT
organizations will place environmental concerns among their top six buying
criteria. By 2010, Gartner says, three-quarters of companies will use carbon-
footprint considerations in calculating their hardware-buying strategy, and
by 2011, large enterprises will develop policies requiring their suppliers to
prove their green credentials through an auditing process.
Most companies are talking a good game but not actually going green
where it counts. According to a survey of 124 IT operations by Forrester
Research in May 2007, some 85 percent of respondents said environmental
factors are important in planning IT operations. But only one-fourth of sur-
vey respondents have actually written green criteria into their company’s
purchasing processes. Enterprises that have started the green journey, how-
ever, have found that reducing total energy requirements can be accom-
plished through some fairly straightforward improvements that don’t take
years to implement or to bring return. The following six tasks are applicable ptg
to all green IT projects. Chapter 2, “The Basics of Green IT,” gives details on
the five steps used by IBM to implement green data centers. Those five green
data center steps include the virtualize, cooling, and measure tasks in the fol-
lowing list. Also, Chapter 9, “Green IT Case Studies for Energy Utilities,”
and Chapter 10, “Green IT Case Studies for Universities and a Large
Company,” give details on the five steps used for case studies.

1. Communicate Green IT Plans and Appoint an
Energy Czar

Measuring the current state of affairs, energy wise, is one of the first steps
to take. A baseline on which to start measuring the impact of an organiza-
tion’s energy-saving initiatives in the green IT area is needed. Of course, you
must also communicate your proposed energy-efficiency initiatives right
away. Inform all employees about the plans and goals to save energy via green
IT. Besides communicating with your employees, set up an organization to
drive the effort. You may start by making one person responsible; give that
person a title (like “Energy Czar”). Details on the importance of communica-
tion and collaboration for green IT is the subject of Chapter 3, “Collaboration
Is Key for Green IT.”