Until now, the carbon footprint related to the use of energy by IT equipment has been largely overlooked by suppliers, customers, policy-makers and campaigners. But as the scale of energy use by IT becomes clear, and as it continues to increase, there will be a growing focus on this area, from both within the IT industry and outside it.

IT has suffered an 'eco black eye' over the course of the past year. It has been accused of being a primary contributor to global warming, even though its contributions are minimal compared to other sources. Instead of IT presuming a defensive position in the 'green IT' movement, IT should assert its role as a positive force for change, in which it embraces innovative technologies and uses them to improve energy efficiency across the enterprise.

It is clear from the level of activity in 2006 and 2007 that IT suppliers themselves are beginning to take action, both collectively and individually. Legislators, too, are beginning to make a connection between IT use and CO2 emissions, a link that had since gone unnoticed.

This activity can also extend to the end user. The new energy-efficient playing field requires 'driving eco-efficiency through IT.' This means embracing smart business strategies that are designed with a dual purpose -- to help define a clear IT economics mandate and define a way to usher in 'eco windfall' benefits for the business as a whole.

End-User Strategies for Eco-Efficient IT

With IT's portion of power use now so high, most medium-sized and large businesses will have no choice but to become far more energy-efficient and, in many cases, will have to adopt a much more active stance toward monitoring and controlling CO2 emissions.

For corporate IT users and the IT industry, this new eco-efficiency mandate represents a huge opportunity to improve overall energy consumption by businesses. Although IT equipment has been getting smaller and more powerful for a sustained period dating back at least to the invention of the microprocessor, energy efficiency has moved at a much slower rate.

As a result, energy demand for IT has risen dramatically, and continues to do so. Where IT equipment is concentrated into a small area such as a datacenter, power availability is a serious problem. The cost of power, meanwhile, is expected to rise over the medium to long term.

When all these factors are put together, it is clear that there is a financial, logistical and environmental need to reduce power use by IT equipment. Businesses seeking to improve their carbon footprint will therefore find this a more rewarding area than, for example, the purchase of renewable energy or carbon offsets, both of which are worthy steps, but clearly carry a cost.

There is another strong case to be made in favor of the use and expansion of IT generally. Although difficult to analyze, IT applications and automation through IT have the potential to dramatically reduce carbon output and costs, by reducing travel and the unnecessary transportation of people and materials, not to mention dramatically reducing the use of paper. Examples here include Internet shopping, collaboration, videoconferencing, e-government, enterprise content management, business process management and e-learning. IT-based control systems are also used extensively to improve the efficiency of all kinds of machines, including cars and planes.

It is clear that IT is in a unique position of being able to play a significant role in reducing CO2 emissions on both the debit and credit side of the equation. NEC has calculated that, in Japan, the widespread application of technologies such as collaboration and telecommuting could bring about a net reduction of 3% in annual CO2 emissions.

The 451 Group believes that, regardless of the motivation, a new era of energy-efficient and energy-aware computing is beginning, in which low energy use in equipment is rewarded with commercial success, and in which almost all systems on a corporate network become increasingly aware of, and manage, their environment and their energy use.

There are many IT-related technologies and strategies that end-user organizations may employ to become more eco-efficient. In most cases, this means reducing power use, but it may also mean displacing carbon-producing activities, such as encouraging videoconferencing in place of travel.

Five key observations about eco-efficient IT:

• Waste and over-provisioning needs urgent attention. A lot of IT that is bought, installed and powered is wasted, as is a lot of the energy that powers it. There is huge over-provisioning and under-utilization throughout modern IT, and therefore a huge scope for improvements in energy use.
• Sharing and reuse saves energy. Whether it is sharing the power supplies in a server, virtualizing the datacenter, using more thin clients or outsourcing an application, the more resources that are shared or managed centrally, the more energy-efficient IT is likely be.
• Management systems, process and commitment will save energy and money. Most organizations, even those that have made public commitments to improve their carbon footprints, do not manage their use of power. When they do, huge improvements will result.
• Investment in new products and technologies will save energy. In almost every technological area, there is both a commitment to, and scope for, technological innovation that will improve efficiency.
• Saving energy provides a good return on investment. While most of the technologies or management strategies may require some initial capital or cultural outlay, the move toward greater sustainability will in most cases not require a huge investment.

Develop a Green IT Culture

Development of a 'green' culture, or at least an 'energy saving' culture, is an important part of all eco-responsibility initiatives. Although responsibility for this extends beyond IT, there is a strong IT element to this. CIOs and datacenter managers will win more support for major architectural improvements or investments if there is a green culture, and will achieve greater acceptance for any strategies that might involve some real or perceived user sacrifice.

Among the measures that may be undertaken that affect IT are:

• Measure or estimate IT power use. Energy use lies at the heart of eco-efficiency, and the most successful organizations in establishing a green culture will be those that can set a baseline of energy use and efficiency and then map progress against targets.
• Buy low-energy or Energy Star products, and publicize this policy.
• Turn computers off when not used, either centrally, or encouraging users to do so (through labeling, etc.). Discourage wasteful printing.
• Recycle IT-related waste (toner cartridges, old PCs, batteries, etc.).
• Publicize successful use of IT that results in a lower carbon footprint --- for example, use of videoconferencing to replace air travel.
• Accept some tactical increased risk where appropriate, through the use of less redundancy.
• Adopt and publicize policies of organizations such as Carbon Trust, Energy Trust and EU Code of Conduct (for IT).
• Specify in contracts that suppliers should conform to high environmental standards. Use the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool to assess these.
• Buy renewable energy or renewable energy certificates. Publicize this to staff and stakeholders.
• Seek to understand the relationship between organizational energy use and CO2 production, and create a policy that links any low-CO2 program to IT use.

To access the full report on this topic, titled, "The eco-imperative and its impact onsuppliers and users," please visit The 451 Group website.

Andy Lawrence is a research director of Eco-Efficient IT at The 451 Group in New York, an independent technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation.