Green Gauge November 2007
From Lauraibm
Full story: San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed Unveils "Green Vision"
The Mayor of San Jose has recently unveiled a Green Vision calling for a 50% reduction in per capita energy use and a switch to 100% renewable energy sources. He is also calling for a number of other green initiatives including the construction or retrofit of 50 million square feet of green building space and all city owned buildings to be on solar power by 2022.
Full story: Green Marketing: Is it Worth the Hype?
Green is the latest trend and the majority of companies appear to be jumping on the green bandwagon and touting their green initiatives. The problem is that the more people who say they are green the less people will believe “in” green, thus there is a need for some sort of measurement system to quantify companies green claims.
Full story: I am Green and IT'll do Fine (16-Oct-07)
A problem for many companies wanting to green their IT is that they simply do not know where to start. To gain the most value there is a need to incorporate the whole of the business strategy when planning green projects and work from the top down. The move to green comes as companies begin to understand the extent of the environmental impact of their IT; which is responsible for 2% of the world’s carbon emissions.
Fujitsu’s whitepaper has set out a 5 step plan to help companies successfully move to green:
- 1. Ensure the project covers the full business and has support at the highest executive level.
- 2. Understand the scope of the greening of the company
- 3. Measure IT assets
- 4. Develop strategies, e.g. recycling, reduce power consumption, optimising infrastructure.
- 5. Implementation and tracking benefits.
Full story: Green Storage Shades Across the Atlantic: Survey (25-Sep-07)
A recent survey by Bridgehead Software has found that North American businesses are more worried about running out of power in the data centre, whereas, British companies appeared to be more concerned about the environment.
Bridgehead highlights how moving data from a spinning disk onto a non-rotating tape or optical disk will reduce electricity bills and could save upto 80% of primary storage. Storage problems have arisen partly in response to companies running scared about compliance, but it is also due to the fact that technolgy purchasing power isn't always in the IT department. For a real difference to be made an enterprise wide approach to archiving will need to be taken rather than a divisional approach where archiving is taking place for compliance and disaster recovery reasons only.
Full story: Dell Offers SMEs Tips for Greening IT Practices (15-Oct-07)
Dell believes that all businesses should evaluate their operating processes and incorporate practical environmental measures. They have complied a list of tips for SMEs considering to introduce green IT practices, including double sided printing, virtual working practices, power efficient products and recycling or donating end of life equipment.
