Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the Budget on 22 April
would be "a job creator, a quality of life improver, and an
environment-enhancing measure".
So what can we expect from these laudable sound bites. The
general consensus from the media and blogosphere is that the
Chancellor Alistair Darling's statement will be a series of
smoke-and-mirror measures to disguise the state of the economy
prior to a general election next year.
Political shenanigans notwithstanding what initiatives can UK’s
beleaguered technology sector hope for in the much heralded ‘Green
Budget’.
Job Creation
Financially, there have been calls for the Chancellor to radically
overall the IR35 legislation as its rules are 'fundamentally
flawed' and have not raised the revenue it was forecast to
raise.
What it has done is increase the costs of projects by inflating
rates, turned the big IT consultancies into soulless ‘body shops’,
and put a brake on economic growth from prescribing against
individual entrepreneurs competing for business on a level playing
field. If the Government is serious about job creation in the green
technology sector IR35 is an easy brake to release.
Quality of Life
An initiative the Government (as well as reducing its carbon
footprint) could adopt would be for it to sign up to using
collaboration technologies as a replacement for travel.
This is nothing new but the importance of collaboration tools
will increase in 2009 as many enterprises have implemented travel
restrictions – politician’s junkets notwithstanding!
Collaboration tools help to close the gap between the desire to
save money and the requirement to stay in contact with other
employees, customers, partners and suppliers.
However, any organisation increasing, or deploying any of these
technologies needs to have the management policies and procedures
in place to manage them. Let’s hope Alistair Darling is able to
conjure up some financial incentive to encourage this.
Environmental Enhancing Measures
As for the environment the appropriate handling and reduction of
hazardous waste associated with IT equipment is as important as
encouraging IT organisations to reduce their power consumption.
However, it’s a cost to business and the Chancellor needs to
tread carefully if he puts more of a financial burden on business
over this issue.
Much has been written about heat management and energy
conservation in data centers. While this is true and data centers
are a source for both carbon emissions and big ticket cost savings
– it’s also employees that can make the difference.
The simple fact is that people in offices do less than they do
at home with regard the environment. Research shows that most
people those are diligent about conserving energy at home but are
ambivilant and prepared to waste it at the office.
This is especially true in the public sector where there is a
culture of waste, believing wrongly, that because private sector
pay is higher, profligacy is a perk.
Start at Home
This is an area where the Chancellor’s intervention could make a
big impact. Tax-funded institutions have developed such spendthrift
habits changing these attitudes in this Public Sector through
greater staff awareness could lead to big savings for the
taxpayer.
Research from the Carbon Trust shows a PC left on 24/7 costs £37
a year. Switching it off can reduce this to just £10 - enough power
to make 34,900 cups of coffee. While, turning off all non essential
equipment in an office for one night will save enough energy to run
a small car for 100 miles.
If you manage a business on a budget, this is no small concern,
but if you have control of Government purse strings this could save
a fortune.
With over 100,000 terminals in the
Department for
Work and Pensions alone, the savings, while a drop in the ocean of
Government spending, represents over 70 tons of CO².
MYTH BUSTER
Myth 1: It is best to leave PCs than to turn them off when n not
in use. A fallacy! The lifetime of a hard disk is limited by
mechanical interactions and wear, rather than by electrical surges
and start-up thermal cycling. Best practice is to turn off your
computer/monitor/printer when heading off to any meeting that lasts
more than a half an hour.
Myth 2: Screensavers save energy. Not True! Most screen savers
do not save energy unless they actually turn off the screen or
backlight; they use as much energy as word processing. To save
energy switch off the monitor when not in use.
Myth 3: Laser printers don't use much energy when they're not
printing. Wrong! They draw a third of printing power on standby.
For an eight page a minute desktop printer this equals 100 watts.
Turn off laser printers when you're not printing.
Myth 4: ENERGY STAR® computers automatically power down when not
in use. While new computers come with sleep capability most come
with the feature turned off, and it's not always obvious how to
activate it. Make sure your users have clear instructions how to
turn it on. Finally, use the sleep feature only as a backup.
You should
still turn the computer off when you're not using it.
Boxing Clever
What other initiatives might we expect from the Chancellor’s green
box? (Surely they won’t miss an easy photo-opportunity by holding
up the battered old red one).
The Government’s longstanding problem of finding a replacement
to council tax and business rates might be answered by initiatives
to allow Local Authorities to charge higher rates for energy
inefficient commercial buildings thereby giving businesses an
inducement to move into green buildings.
While HMG sees UK plc as a global green energy economy
frontrunner we can expect investment incentives financed by energy
companies (threatened by a windfall tax if they do not) as well as
an announcement of income for small green energy generators.
This may mean tax relief for investing in green energy
generation if the Treasury cannot fund significant new generating
capacity and needs to
encourage private sector investment.
Making an impact
The Chancellor, in his attempt to boost Labour’s environmental
credentials might widen the range of "green" assets which qualify
for enhanced capital allowances and extending cash repayment
options to unincorporated businesses. This would target SMB and
startups.
But with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) an
ever growing contributor to the UK’s carbon emissions its footprint
now exceeds that for the aircraft industry.
With central and local government having the largest ICT spend
(£12bn in ‘07/’08), Alistair Darling has the opportunity to set-out
hard line plans to reduce the public sector carbon output. With
such pressure on its suppliers to use and provide greener IT assets
and services this initiative will filter through to us all.
Green Credentials
The spin doctors have set out the mood music for Tuesday’s Budget.
For technology users to make an impact in response to the green
imperative, businesses need both agility and innovation.
While the private sector should by its nature have this in
abundance, the leaden steps of public institutions may hold us back
unless the Chancellor plays a blinder.
We shouldn't need reminding that third world countries are low
carbon footprint economies. With the amount of Government borrowing
we’re being burdened with, achieving the UK’s green credentials
might be closer than we think.