Greening the enterprise

Chingchai Maketipphachai, Country Manager, 3Com (Thailand)

Enterprises of all sizes are struggling to define - let alone adopt - green concepts. While individuals are quick to embrace the green lifestyle by recycling printing paper, using canvas bags for grocery shopping, or replacing their gas-guzzling cars with power-efficient hybrids, enterprises are often lost when it comes to how environmentally friendly practices can benefit them. Others ignore the concept, mistakenly thinking that being green is costly and therefore bad for business.

Researchers have found that the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has been increasing at a rate of about 0.5 per cent per year. It is now about 30 per cent above pre-industrial levels. With businesses accounting for a significant percentage of total C02 emissions, enterprises clearly have a big role to play in the concerted effort to reduce emissions of this greenhouse gas.

There are various ways in which environmentally friendly firms can "go green". Some construct green buildings and offices, others go paperless, while a common approach is adopting good-housekeeping measures such as switching off electrical equipment when it is not in use. 

One practice believed to have the potential for tremendous impact on the environment is green IT. However, it has yet to gain support within enterprise circles.  Green IT is defined as the integration of technologies to improve energy efficiency, as well as manufacturing processes and materials that significantly reduce waste and the use of toxic chemicals.

Originally, green IT failed to take off because of a lack of support from IT vendors. In recent years, however, more vendors have been adapting their manufacturing processes in response to customer demands for more energy-efficient equipment. This trend is partly driven by the fact that the cost of power needed to run and cool these devices is beginning to exceed their acquisition cost.

These days, vendors are implementing two strategic directions in supporting green IT:  the bottom-up approach that entails using the most efficient components available for their equipment, or the top-down approach that emphasises traffic optimisation across the network to reduce the stress on equipment. As an IT user, an enterprise can kick-start its green strategy by adopting both approaches - optimising network traffic in its current IT environment and specifying green equipment in its IT road map.

If you want to embrace green IT, here are some factors you need to seriously consider when buying IT equipment: toxic substances, energy-efficient components, processors, power adapters and cooling.

Going green merits serious consideration. Whatever your motivation - whether you want to cut back on equipment costs or reduce operating expenses - the right IT decision will have a long-lasting impact on your budget and the world's environment. Think about it.