According to Moore’s law, computer power doubles in performance and halves in cost over 18 months. So, IT energy efficiency would seem to be an inevitable result of progress. But this does not take into account the soaring power costs of operating – and cooling – these ultra-fast computers and the infrastructure that supports them.
With the ICT industry potentially creating the same level of carbon emissions as the aviation sector (see Turning green into gold), it’s clear that pushing the green agenda in the ICT world is of global importance.
There is an environmental benefit to carbon-friendly ICT, and a direct impact on the bottom line if organisations can introduce more efficient equipment, as well as greener behaviour. There are also ‘softer’ benefits for companies in terms of client perception and positive press for companies that are waving the green flag.
Business must learn how to weave the use of green ICT into the fabric of its operations. Reducing the carbon footprint requires significant changes in working practices, such as efficient in-house computing management, home working, hot-desking, remote collaboration and video/audio conferencing. It also means checking that your suppliers are doing their bit.
And advances in technology can help. An ICT strategy that connects people at any time, irrespective of location, means fewer plane journeys, less traffic on the roads, fewer power-hungry devices, less reliance on scarce resources, and an opportunity to exploit ICT to make organisations more efficient and agile at the same time. A flexible, mobile workforce means smaller offices with fewer empty desks, and less energy required to light and heat buildings and power office equipment – in the summer time at least. An additional benefit is that the business can be made more resilient to events outside of its control, such as industrial disputes, freak weather and other barriers to reaching the workplace.
However, to achieve this we must devise a strategy that avoids loading people up with a multitude of electronic devices to enable this new found freedom. A typical modern mobile worker nowadays probably has a home PC, an office PC and a laptop, a mobile phone and a BlackBerry. With such device overload, organisations are creating unnecessary complexity and are powering, managing and supporting the disparate communications and back-end server infrastructures required to support this environment.
This works against the objectives of most businesses, which include improving employee productivity and reducing costs in terms of energy bills and mobile communications connections. What is required is an approach where applications and infrastructure are decoupled – where device-independent applications can be delivered to the user over a common infrastructure irrespective of the terminal being used.
In this respect green ICT offers benefits all round. The simplification of infrastructure reduces the environmental impact of doing business, while also simplifying the support, management and delivery of business functionality. This flies in the face of more traditional business cases for green activities, which have previously been expected to be investment intensive.
The technology must enable changes in people’s attitudes and behaviours. For one employee, just turning off their computer every night will save 235kg of CO2 in a month, according to government figures. That’s the equivalent of ‘buying’ them – in carbon terms – a return air seat from London to Madrid. People need to be encouraged, and the technology should make it easier for them to go green, not the other way round.