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Over recent months, the main topic of conversation has been the economy. But it’s always important to remember that worldwide concerns over climate change still require our attention.
For any company finding it hard to address issues of climate change and to create ways of reducing their carbon footprint, HP has sponsored a ‘Green IT Guide for Dummies', which was recently launched in Brussels. The pocketbook guide gives everyone from senior management downwards some simple and straight forward ideas on how to reduce the environmental impact of their IT systems and how IT can reduce the environmental impact of their business.
Guidance on ‘greening’
The guide has been produced by an independent IT research and analysis company called Freeform Dynamics which conducts large scale research studies into strategy, business cases and best practices. It also provides specialist guidance on where to start in terms of ‘greening’ a company - in other words, making it environmentally sound.
The guide is pragmatic in its approach. It provides a comprehensive list of actions that are ranked according to expense and degree of difficulty of implementation. Suggested actions include quick wins such as activating standby functions on IT equipment to maximising efficiency of data centres and a variety of other business processes.
Employee support
Recent research from HP has shown that only one in ten companies within Europe have a formal Green IT strategy. Studies from Freeform Dynamics have also found that employee attitudes to the environment are generally ahead of their companies’ attitudes. This should make it fairly easy to assume that employees can be quick to support a company’s implementation of a Green IT strategy.
Zoe McMahon, Environmental Strategy Manager for HP EMEA says: “There are lots of options for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. IT can allow us to do more with less and it can actually be responsible for half of the 20 per cent energy efficiency improvements targeted for 2020 by the European Union. We hope that this guide will start people thinking about IT in these terms.”
Responsibility to reduce emissions
IT is responsible for around two percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. However, IT can also play a large role in reducing the emissions of the remaining 98 per cent. As an example, HP employs its own video conferencing technology on an internal and frequent basis. In 2009, HP expects to quadruple the number of Halo Collaboration Studios at company sites worldwide, which will result in a reduction of more than 20,000 trips, millions of dollars saved in travel and a significant reduction on carbon emissions.
Freeform Dynamics has also launched its own blog relating to the new guide. Click here to read it.
More information
Green IT Guide for Dummies
Blog entry
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Printable version
