Green and Bear IT!

The buzzword nowadays which is making the round of corporate offices, government legislations, academia and equipment manufacturers alike is “GREEN‟. Quite some time back, Green IT in particular, was identified as a major issue facing managers. The rapidly growing carbon foot-print has shown little sign of abating although a host of green measures have been implemented to tackle this serious menace. The IT industry is reportedly responsible for almost 2% of global CO2 output. Rapidly growing information and communications technologies, including laptops and PCs, data centres and computing networks, mobile phones, and telecommunications networks, all are slated to be among the biggest greenhouse gas emitters by 2020.

Most organizations understand the need to respond positively to the environmental and commercial uncertainty brought about by climate change and a changing global landscape. However, these steps or measures have varied in speed, scope and intent. However, with public pressure mounting, increasingly focused negative publicity is being directed at perceived offenders, resulting in companies running for cover and trying to reduce or justify their carbon footprint. Increasingly tough legislation like the WEEE in Europe has made green measures mandatory.

Data Centres are the most energy intensive part of an IT organization. So use of energy-efficient servers in data centers, promotion of “3R‟ – Reduce, Re-use, Refuse policy, use of been instrumental in improving the telecommunication networks resulting in reduction in air travel, power management, virtualization are just few of the methods being used to reduce the emission of environment damaging substances. CSR has been promoting implementation of Green IT in a big way and has image of companies as “environmentally responsible”.

However, not all is hunky-dory on the green front. Many companies view the implementation of green measures as laws enforced on them and comply with them only to remain socially and politically acceptable.

The toughest challenge is the age-old battle of ethics versus money. It takes integrity and sense of purpose to see these projects through. The management needs to show to the company the connection of implementing green measures directly to the business model. The program should not seem like an 'add on', rather it should be a part of the strategy to reach the organization's established goals. The focus should be on aligning green measures with the core business model, and integrating the various steps into day-to-day operations. The employees need to be actively engaged and empowered to take eco-friendly decisions.

The supply chains of most industries are where there is huge scope for going green. However, shared sub-component suppliers, specialized manufacturing environments and sophisticated MRP systems mean that product often travels around the world before it reaches the final assembly plant or data centre floor. But companies contend that changing manufacturing processes or building facilities to reduce travel will cause more environmental damage. Also it is neither commercially viable to have in-house manufacturing sites in all major markets.

Lack of metrics to measure the full lifecycle impact of products on the environment is cited as another reason which reduces the motivation for green measures implementation. Also hardware companies are notorious in reporting outdated resource usage data with little drilldown available. Up gradation to greener server and storage devices is difficult because of lack of guidance was the opinion expressed by many companies.

All businesses, however, should understand that pursuing green IT will result in long term benefits, such as cost-efficiency and improved work-place practices. A shared approach is necessary to ensure both green IT and business objectives can be pursued simultaneously and for mutual benefit.

Shilpa is an IT engineer from Mumbai University. Required to sleep less yet can't do without her usual quota, she spends her days managing between classes, teachers and companies all at the same time. In between all this, she manages to squeeze in a little bit of blogging (non-existent for now) as well. She probably learnt this juggling act from her 3-year stint at TCS. Her latest feat has been to continue the juggle with one foot in Delhi and one in Kolkata!