Local government IT managers are not doing enough to cut
carbon emissions, delegates at theSocitmconference were told yesterday
(Tuesday 17 October).
Tim Dawes, managing director of Nineveh Consulting, which
specialises in advising the public sector said, that globally, IT
is responsible for 2% of carbon emissions - the same amount as the
aviation industry, but IT professionals had yet to tackle the
issue.
"We have responded by putting our heads in the sand. An
Economist survey showed that half of IT departments do not even
measure their
datacentre energy consumption," he said.
Dawes set out a raft of measures that IT managers can put into
place which could help IT managers reduce the carbon footprint in
other areas of the council.
"Teleworking is not always beneficial. If one person with an
average commute stays at home with the heating on, and the offices
are open and heated as well, it adds to emissions. Unless you are
making a general move to teleworking and closing offices, do home
working in the summer and get them in the office in the winter," he
said.
Dawes said most of the emissions from desktops are produced in
the manufacturing stage, so changing PCs frequently is bad for the
environment.
Laptops are more efficient than PCs, he said. "If you have staff
using both, consider just giving them laptops," he said.
What IT managers can do:
- Carry out carbon RoI assessments of IT projects
- Set targets to reduce emissions
- Campaign to get people to switch off their equipment at the
end of the day
- Using energy consumption as a criteria in procurement
decisions
- Monitoring power consumption of the datacentre
- Consider teleworking
- Virtualisation
- Reduce work-related travel.