Reducing carbon dioxide emissions and saving costs through IT Power Management
A question was put forward to me recently by BBC Coventry and Warwickshire radio presenter Mark Powlett, on how it was the larger organisations which can make HUGE savings in reducing the IT energy wasted. Ideally, all organisations should have policies in place which state PCs should be turned off or put into a low power mode when not in use. Practically, that’s not always the case! This can be addressed through effective communication and marketing though.
As mentioned in earlier blog posts, IT is an enabler to other organisations in reducing costs, reducing energy usage and reducing carbon emissions. The Gartner Group have stated 40% of IT emissions come from PCs. Being aware of this, we want to ensure the energy consumption of PCs is reduced, especially as electricity prices are rising and organisations are generally looking for cost saving measures. It is therefore best to apply PC power management settings. However, it seems (as I’ve been told many times!), setting an individual’s own PCs power management to sleep/standby (depending on the machines operating system) or hibernate mode appears to confuse some users, is disruptive and is not as user friendly.
There are a number of software products which can automatically power down PCs, save open documents, encourage user engagement, close down applications, measure energy consumption and provide reporting. Some provide more accurate measurement and auditable reporting, as is required for the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme.
There are a number of companies globally who have saved costs and reduced their energy usage and carbon footprint through IT power management tools.
Bearing in mind, it’s not just overnight when PCs and monitors should be turned off or put into lower power mode - lunch breaks, time spent in meetings or away from the desk collectively in an organisation can be quite considerable! There is often a need for some PCs to be left on though, to support particular critical business processes.
How would you know which PC Power Management product fits the needs of your business and is the most cost effective? Is it pricing per device? What are the set up costs? Are maintenance and upgrades provided free? Does it run on client/server or is it web-based? What are the features? Can PCs be switched on automatically as well?
Very quickly, a big thank you to Stew Kingscott (from BBC Coventry and Warwickshire radio), as he initially gave me his time back in September and listened to me go on and on and on about Green IT! Through Stew, I was then once again recently given yet another opportunity to pop into BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio, but this time to briefly talk about the awareness of Green IT on air.
DATE: 13/11/2010
Tripta Prashar
www.givingtimeandsolutions.com
I think too heavy an attack on electronics. I personally think that more attention should be given to transport, of which electronics can hugely contribute to reducing the impact of.
So more use of networked technology means less need for planes, cars, buses, etc.
But thinking hard in combination is vital to a more efficient future… less transport, less wasted use of electronics…
But Tripta, have you got any statistics on transport use? i.e. how much energy is wasted in pointless journies, etc?