Cost-cutting, environmentally friendly green IT
Green IT is good for budgets from the start
Use of information technology accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions, the same percentage as generated by global air travel. In part due to new legislation, the IT industry is responding by manufacturing and adopting energy-saving equipment and processes. Only very few companies, however, are taking advantage of new subsidies for green IT.
Summary
The use of green IT in the workplace
The big cost drivers and polluters in companies are computers, peripherals and office equipment. In office buildings, office equipment accounts for 20 to 40% of total power consumption. The potential savings with regard to office equipment are much higher than for data centres, offering scope for cutting electricity costs by up to 50% a year*. The following measures show how.
The greatest energy cost savings can be achieved by making changes such as adopting server-based computing. A data centre takes over the role of PCs, so individual workstations require only a "thin client", i.e. an extremely economical computer that consumes just a third of the power of a standard PC.
- Thin clients consume around 85% less power than desktop PCs. The server infrastructure shares the overall load between individual users, enabling the system as a whole to work more efficiently.
Energy-saving shutdown
Suppliers often fail to set and activate energy-saving functions, both for standalone and network operation. These simple measures save a considerable amount of electricity.
Switching off equipment when not in use
Printers, scanners and PCs do not need to be switched on 24 hours a day. Even in standby mode, they still consume power. Employees should be encouraged to switch off equipment whenever it is not needed.
Energy efficiency in the server room
Intelligent energy efficiency measures can reduce the power costs of server rooms and data centres by up to 50% – without compromising on functionality, safety or security. The two main ways of cutting energy consumption and costs are to use server capacity to the full and optimise data centre air conditioning and airflow management.
- Optimised use of server capacity through careful matching of components and deployment of energy-saving equipment (on average only between 20 and 30% of server capacity is used, more performance is rarely required).
- Reducing the cooling load and power costs via machine and resource virtualisation (thin client).
- Using heat generated in the server room by integrating this resource into an energy-efficient climate concept featuring passive climate control and heat recovery.
- Avoiding excessive cooling. In separate server rooms, the temperature can rise to 26°C without impacting safety. Setting a corresponding limit saves a lot of electricity.
- By choosing energy-efficient office equipment, electricity costs can be reduced by up to 50% a year compared to standard equipment.
Source: Bauer/Mösle/Schwarz: Green Building. Guidebook for Sustainable Architecture
The Environmental Innovation Programme set up by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) and the ERP environment and energy efficiency programme (European Recovery Programme) provide attractive funding opportunities for companies to take innovative energy-saving measures or for specific investment in green IT.
For more information visit www.bmu.de/foerderprogramme (German only).