Companies renew pledge to conserve environment, save energy costs on Earth Day.
The word ‘green’ is catching up fast with IT companies. The Earth Day on April 22 only served as another occassion for many IT companies to renew their pledge to conserve the environment’s resources and save energy costs in the bargain.
It’s also a good business practice. Today, 18 per cent of the organisations surveyed (Green Poll conducted by IDC in the Asia-Pacific region) consider the greenness of the IT suppliers before making a selection, and another 30 per cent are expected to do so in the near future, according to Reji Kumar Pillai, head (Energy & Utility), IBM India.
A green data centre, for instance, can cut a typical data centre cost by half. It can also protect the environment by reducing emissions that amount to taking 1,300 automobiles off the road. Forrester has been virtualising and consolidating its server infrastructure, and replacing power-hungry servers with lower-power models.
Virtualisation allows the utilisation to increase by 30-40 per cent and costs — power, cooling, hardware — to reduce by 30-70 per cent. Virtual servers also reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) levels considerably.
Maharashtra-based Chitale Diary, for instance, consolidated its IT environment into three physical servers (from 10) in one data centre. These servers host 20 virtual servers running multiple applications and operating systems. With a virtualised environment, the firm reduced hardware acquisition costs by 50 per cent, server deployment time came down from three weeks to a few hours. And it brought in 50 per cent reduction in power, cooling, and real estate.
IBM has committed over $1 billion to the Big Green Innovation initiative launched in 2007. The project focuses on intelligent energy (smart grids and alternative energy), carbon management, water management, and computational modelling. Intel, on its part, integrated ‘Design for Environment’ principles into its production.
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The Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI — co-founded by Intel and being led in India by Nasscom, CII, TERI and WWF) works globally with manufacturers and consumers to increase the energy efficiency of personal computers (PCs) and servers by 50 per cent with the help of power-management tools.
Globally, the aim is to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 54 million tonnes a year and cut energy costs by $5.5 billion by 2010. Through this initiative, the information & communications technology (ICT) industry has pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 40 lakh tonnes a year and save more than Rs 2,250 crore in energy costs, according to Sonia Srivastava, director, corporate affairs, Intel.
Cisco, too, has engaged in a cross-industry effort and has launched Energy Wise, a technology that makes it possible for businesses to reduce carbon emissions, by managing energy consumption of devices on the network when they are not in use. It is celebrating Environmental Awareness 2009 during the week beginning April 20. There will be a series of global and local events centered around Earth Day, including Cisco Bike to Work Day (BTWD).
Throughout the month of April, Applied Materials employees around the world will be engaging in environment-friendly campaigns called ‘EarthWorks’. Activities ranging from park clean-ups to information sessions called ‘green bags’ will be conducted. Applied Materials is also encouraging its employees worldwide to participate in the “Do One Thing” challenge, where employees are encouraged to take any individual green initiatives, whether it’s riding a bicycle to work or recycling batteries. At the end of the month, Applied Materials will plant a tree for each employee who participates.
India’s third largest IT company Wipro, for instance, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with WWF to collaborate in several areas of sustainability like the application of IT solutions to ecological sustainability. “This programme is in its initial stages and is expected to quickly gather momentum in 2009,” says Brij Sethi, vice-president and Evangelist Eco-Eye at Wipro Technologies.
The company also has a paper-recycling plant, a biogas plant for converting food wastes as well as a water recycling facility which also includes rain water harvesting. “We recycle water to the extent of 50 per cent in some of our facilities,” adds Sethi.
Similarly, HCL Technologies Infrastructure Services Division (HCLT ISD) has developed a Green Datacentre solution on this Earth Day. The solution focuses on datacentre management and transformation services and helps enterprises cut their costs by 20-30 per cent on their datacentre operations by assessing, planning and implementing initiatives around their datacentre environment. “Moreover. there is also an upcoming 46-acre facility housing 15,000 HCLites in finely landscaped, eco-friendly buildings,” notes Swapan Johri, senior vice-president, Transformation Services, HCLT ISD.
Some companies are focussing on energy conservation and others on e-waste. For instance, IT firm Sapient has tied up with Recyclecartridge.org to re-cycle printer cartridges. Explains Atul Shagotra, director general (management), Sapient: “We plan to have more tie ups going forward. Also, we procure our products from Green suppliers.” Employees, too, are being encouraged to save energy costs by switching off lights and air-conditioners when not in use and making use of car pools. However, some firms have used innovative methods of encouraging their employees.
‘Is the handset industry really green’
Vendors today appear to be making significant strides in green areas, with clear regulatory or cost benefits. All firms are undoubtedly pursuing green initiatives for both reputation and business reasons, notes a Gartner survey. They have lowered their use of hazardous chemicals, reduced packaging and improved efficiency in power adaptors. In other areas, it appears hard for vendors to keep their promises about greener phones, especially as consumers demand more functionality and bigger screens from their phones.
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive has impacted all handset vendors’ production processes beyond European Union (EU) borders. Vendors such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and RIM have introduced the global standards for their products, independent of the market destination. However, they have been hesitant when it comes to using recycled materials. Though Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung are working on solutions in this area, they have not yet launched a device containing recycled plastic due to compromises on quality/durability that must be overcome.
Packaging reductions, on the other hand, represent a clear win for the vendors. Most have reduced their packaging by an average of 50 per cent, cutting down on cost and transportation charges. They also have worked extensively to reduce their consumption of plastics by substituting them with paper products. The active reduction in packaging by the top vendors in the industry has limited packaging consumption in 2008 to about 500,000 metric tonnes of paper and plastic, even though the number of handset units sold has increased by 50 per cent since 2005. If the industry was using the average packaging weight from 2005, it could have consumed approximately 300,000 metric tonnes more packaging material.