Green IT is a set of hardware, software and even personal/organizational habits that are energy efficient.  By choosing Green IT products and practices, people can reduce the energy (usually measured in Kilowatt Hours kWh) used by office equipment including from computers, servers, printers and other peripherals to the AC unit used to cool the server room. For sustainable local businesses, this means that Green IT can help them cut their energy costs and reduce their carbon footprint by several tons of CO2 per year.

The following questions will assist you with the assessment of the Green IT implications for your organization.

1.  Does your organization have a computer purchasing policy that requires the purchase and use of Energy Star rated equipment?

Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.  Computer products and peripherals that have an Energy Star label  have been shown to comply with certain international energy efficiency standards.  A computer that is Energy Star rated, for example, must waste only 20% or less electric energy as heat.  

For more information, visit http://www.energystar.gov.

2.  Are computer related purchases restricted to EPEAT compliant PCs?

The Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) was developed by the Green Electronics Council to assist in the purchase of "green" computing systems. The Council evaluates computing equipment on 28 criteria that measure a product's efficiency and sustainability attributes, such as toxicity of materials required to produce the IT product. An EPEAT  label guarantees that once your IT equipment reaches the end of its lifecycle,  it will not contaminate the environment.

 For a list of EPEAT registered products, visit http://www.epeat.net.

3.  Has a technical advisor assessed whether your organization could downsize the current IT infrastructure?

Whether you have PCs that are sitting idle, monitors that are not in use or servers that are not operating at capacity, merely having this equipment plugged in is wasting energy.  The largest energy waste, however, results from using more than one server to operate just a couple of applications. 

Consolidating servers wherever possible will not only lower total cost of hardware but also lower power, cooling, and management costs.

4.  Have all Cathode Ray Tube Monitors (CRTs) been replaced with Liquid Crystal Display Monitors (LCDs)?

LCDs, or flat-panel screens, save one third to one half of the amount of energy used by CRTs.

5.  Does your office use laptops or thin clients instead of PCs?

While the average PC uses about 85 watts, the average laptop uses 15-45 watts.  Similarly, a thin client requires only 40 to 50 watts.  A thin client is a device that depends on the main server for processing.  While it does not have storage, a thin client has several advantages such as decreasing the need for technical support, being less susceptible to viruses, storing data more safely, being smaller and being less costly.

The choice of thin clients over PCs on the business desktop reduced CO2 emissions in Western Europe by 166,000 tons in 2007.

6. Are peripherals ( including printers) and power strips turned off at the end of the day as opposed to being left online or on sleep mode?

Many IT components, such as monitors, printers, and fax machines, are "ghost" energy users, meaning that they continue to draw power even when they are turned off.  Make use of the on/off switch on your power strip or unplug appliances from the socket

7.  Does your office use power management software designed to automatically switch all computers to sleep mode or off when not in use?

Offices often leave computers turned on long past business hours.  Assuming that you shut down your computer for 16 hours a day (versus keeping it active 24/7), over  the course of the computer’s life (3 years = 2,880 lbs), the greenhouse gas emissions avoided  will be about the same as taking a car off the road for a year. 

By installing power management software on your office's server or changing  the settings at individual workstations, you can set computers to go to sleep after ten minutes of idle time rather than reverting to screen saver mode, which expends as much energy as a the full on-mode.  Power management software also allows the company to turn off computers and reboot them remotely when access is required for installing updates and doing patch work.

8.  Are you reducing energy and server use by using Internet-based software?  

Internet-based software, or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), is a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet.  This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, which saves energy, as well as avoiding the customer's need for software maintenance. SaaS may also be less costly than the regular purchasing of  software.  This is an especially attractive option for small business owners.

9.  Do your peripherals and personal habits encourage paper-saving?

Duplex-printing enabled printers and electronic fax machines are equipment choices that will help your office become increasingly paperless.  Printers that require a confirmation code on the machine may avoid accidental printing. In addition, asking that employees create an electronic signature will also save trees and money by avoiding unnecessary printing.