Green IT will be business norm soon
Organisations will soon have no choice but to comply with green IT principles because of market forces, according to a BCS video debate.
Smart IT organisations need to include low-cost software solutions into their long-term strategic plans in order to survive in the current marketplace, which is moving towards cloud computing and the commoditisation of computer resources, the debate Green IT: Recycling Versus Reuse reveals.
Kate Craig-Wood, Managing Director of green hosting company Memset, and a member of the BCS Data Centre Specialist Group, said: ‘Everything is being pushed back to the data centre, and in that market the people with the lowest costs will win and the people with the lowest cost will be the people who use their equipment most efficiently. Commoditisation is being driven by the efficient companies, and those who are inefficient will die, especially in the current climate.’
Anja Ffrench, Director of Marketing and Communications at Computer Aid International, a charity which provides refurbished computers for use in education, health and agriculture in developing countries, believes companies are starting to become more aware of the benefits and importance of disposing of their outdated computer equipment responsibly. However, in the absence of targets or incentives for re-use, many companies are recycling their equipment instead of re-using it, which is not the most energy efficient option. Recycling the equipment involves breaking down the machines and shredding them. She claims that it is far more environmentally friendly as well as socially responsible to reuse them and extend their lives as long as possible.
She said: ‘There is such a massive demand in Africa and South America from schools and hospitals for equipment while we in the UK are getting rid of millions of computers every year and only a tiny minority is being responsibly reused. We would like to see the government create more incentives for companies to ‘re-use’ their equipment in this way.’
Jim Craig, UK head of social corporate responsibility and sustainability, Sun Microsystems, said: ‘The IT Industry is doing a lot. For example, Sun cuts down at the design stage on the amount of raw materials that go into our computers. Also, we don’t use plastics and don’t paint the metal of servers.
‘However, economic benefit and return on investment are key to customers in the current economic climate, no matter how ecological the proposition. We are seeing an uptake in business because we satisfy those two areas.’
Around 75 per cent of a PC’s lifetime energy use is consumed in its manufacture. The amount of raw materials expended as a result of creating a PC is the equivalent to a C-class Mercedes Benz, or 1.7 metric tons, the debate revealed. Recycling does not take into account the energy used to produce computer chips, which is around 1,000 kilowatt hours per machine.
To extend the life of PCs, IT departments could use software thin client technology, with the PC as a thin client. And when it comes to replacing them, they can implement thin client solutions and virtualisation. Finally, instead of recycling their machines, they could consider donating the equipment to other organisations. This would prolong the life of the PC and help organisations in the developing world.
Speaking after the debate, Richard French, green IT product manager at BCS, said: ‘Green IT is the key to energy efficiency throughout the IT profession, which in turn reduces carbon emissions and lowers business costs through its implementation. BCS is leading the profession in the green IT area through thought-leadership debates such as these, and through our experts in this subject, who have contributed significantly to our new Foundation Certificate in Green IT qualification.’
Topics: Britain, business, clean energy, cloud computing, computer resources, England, envrionment, Green IT, green IT principles, ICT, low cost software, recycling, renewable energy, reuse, technology, UK, United Kingdom
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