Green Computing

March 2008

Green may be a widely overused word but it still remains a burning issue for businesses.

With the new electrical equipment recycling requirements under the WEEE directive, tax breaks, company reporting revisions and threat of a potential CO2 levy, the reasons for adopting a green IT policy are too compelling to ignore.

Green computing is a balance between economic viability, social responsibility and environmental impact. Yet, our key priorities remain resilience and availability, so how can we be morally accountable whilst gaining business advantages from technology?

Your approach can be simple: Reduce PC standby and power-off intervals. Review data centre cooling efficiencies. Maintain an IT register, deploying hardware more productively. Reduce waste paper, look instead to maximise your electronic document storage capabilities

Think carefully about future investments: Choose hardware that meets environmental standards, is not power hungry and has a long battery life. Flat screens use less energy, but only switch once current CRT monitors run their full life cycle.

Be wary of green-washing. Manufacturer Take Back schemes are great but stripping down a perfectly good machine to recycle is ludicrous - donate to Computer Aid for refurbishment so it can be used abroad instead.

Take advantage of technology such as Thin Client computing and Virtualisation to improve efficiencies. Thin Client technology harnesses processing power across your organisation, reducing IT maintenance costs and extending the life of hardware. In addition this client-server relationship is great for providing secure access for remote users.