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4

The Government’s

Role—Regulation and

EPA Activity

“Just a few short years ago, government’s green IT
focus centered on recycling print cartridges, but now
the focus is on how to be green throughout the entire
IT lifecycle.”

—EPA CIO Molly O’Neill, March 2008, at Federal
Executive Forum
ptg
Governments have a significant role in providing motivation for compa-
nies to move to green IT. This motivation can be in the form of tax incentives
or in the form of regulation. Government agencies such as the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continue to have a significant
role in advancing energy efficiency in IT equipment and data centers. One of
the significant aspects of the information in this chapter is to help convince
us of the economic sense of moving to green computing. The environmental
and social aspects of reducing energy use become significant added benefits
to initiatives that can be sustained based on business cases alone. In addition
to the EPA’s push for energy efficiency in IT, the government also has a role
in regulating carbon emissions through policies such as cap-and-trade
systems.

Regulating Greenhouse Gases

By 2008, many countries in Europe had already set regulations to limit
carbon emissions. The consensus is that the U.S. Congress will also set
similar regulations. The regulations are intended to curb greenhouse gas

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