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Going "Green" With Your IT

by William E. Trotter

One of the biggest corporate trends evolving today is the "green" movement. How does the green wave impact your business? More specifically, how can you take your corporate IT shop green?

What the heck does "green" mean anyway? Green has grown into a popular term used to describe people, products and organizations that are considered to not harm the natural environment. Everyone and everything has jumped on the green bandwagon. You can have a green automobile, green grocery sacks, green vacations and a terribly not-so-green brother-in-law.

This isn't to say the environmental movement is new. Ever since Henry David Thoreau and his Walden Woods, people have been aware of and concerned about the human impact on the environment. So what is different about the current environmental movement? Why all the fuss now?

Blame the growth of Bright Green Environmentalism. Traditional environmental thinking suggested that we humans are fundamentally bad for the environment. A direct relationship could be drawn between the growth of the human population, our need for space, food and energy, and the increasingly rapid downfall of Mother Nature. The remedy offered by traditional or, as called by some, "dark" environmentalists, was to reduce the number of people and / or give up the things we love (cars, steak dinners, energy-sucking air conditioners). Contrast this line of thought with that of the more recent "bright" green environmentalists. These folks aim for a society that relies on new technology and improved design to achieve environmental sustainability without giving up the things we all want. Two examples of bright green technologies: hybrid automobiles (don't give up your car, make a car that requires less fuel), and of course, solar energy (crank up that air conditioner, energy is abundant and free, at least as long as the sun is shining).

So if being environmentally conscious is popular, what does this mean for your business? The question is not if your business should consider its environmental impact, but only when and how. A few drivers are making riding the green wave not only desirable, but necessary:

New government mandates

Increased energy costs

Product and company differentiation

Employees swooning over the new Toyota Prius that Suzy in accounting just bought

A profound economic change is gathering pace:

Let's talk about your IT. Opportunities to be green cover all aspects of business, but no area is closer to the trend of improved technology and design than IT. Why make greening your IT shop a strategic focus? A few things to consider:

A power and cooling capacity crunch in data centers has hit many businesses already

The energy bills of enterprise IT shops continue to climb

Government regulation of hazardous substances (found in most IT
infrastructure) mandate increasing levels of proper recycling

Recognition and risk drive many businesses to be better corporate citizens

What steps can you take now to start on the path to greener IT?

1. Consider energy usage when building out a new IT infrastructure and create
    efficient platforms for your business applications
2. Source your IT purchases from responsible suppliers - those that reduce the
    use of hazardous substances and lessen the impacts of packaging and
    transportation
3. Utilize data centers that obtain energy from alternative "green" energy
    sources and consider the purchase of carbon offsets to balance your
    company's traditional energy usage
4. Be responsible with the disposal of equipment and reuse / refurbish
    whenever possible. Now is the time to take advantage of the momentum
    behind the green wave. We can all be good stewards of the environment and
    enjoy newfound green credentials both in and outside of the office.

End Notes:

Source: Christopher Mines and Euan Davis, "Green IT Overview" Forrester Research, Inc., 26 November 2007
Source: Christopher Mines and Frank E. Gillett, "The Greening of IT" Forrester Research, Inc., 19 April 2007
Source: Pete Engardio, "Beyond the Green Corporation" Business Week, 29 January 2007
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About the author: William E. Trotter is a Manager with Avalion Consulting in Dallas, Texas and can be e-mailed at wtrotter@avalion.com. He received his BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining Avalion, Mr. Trotter spent seven years in the Deloitte Consulting technology practice.