It is getting hard to avoid all things green these days,
as environmental issues climb the political agenda, and IT is as
much in the spotlight as any sector.
What's more, the pressure will grow, especially given the
recently-released finding that servers last year accounted for more
than 4% of the UK's total commercial electricity consumption.
But for the IT community - suppliers and corporate users - the
efficiency of datacentres remains just the tip of the green-tinged
iceberg if it is to get its house in order.
In August, a survey published by Greenpeace named and shamed PC
and laptop suppliers whose manufacturing processes were deemed to
be insufficiently environmentally sound.
Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics ranked the top 14 PC
and laptop makers on their use of harmful chemicals and waste
recycling, but not one was seen as measuring up, with Apple and
Hewlett-Packard coming out worst.
With bad publicity like this doing the rounds, changes in
business practices could be brought about by the fact that
reputations will soon be on the line.
With or without legislation, it is easy to envisage a time in
the not too distant future when corporate IT users and suppliers
will suffer if they are not seen to be minimising their
environmental impact, or "carbon footprint".
A more immediate driver for CIOs is the fact that energy costs
are continuing to rise, so any steps firms can take to cut their
energy requirements are likely to have a noticeable impact on the
bottom line.
We may be a few years away from "zero-carbon" datacentres, but
IT directors can speed the process - if they genuinely desire
to.
The green machine >>