Green IT 1

Making Information Technology Green

Curtis Helser

Everest University
Curtis Helser Green IT 2

Everest University

Comp II

Abstract

The Information Technology departments of companies are a leading

source for excessive power use, excessive spending of resources, and uses many

toxic materials. All of these items are bad business practices and converting a

company’s IT department to a more streamlined green concept is far more cost

effective as well as better use of resources. This paper examines the creation of

Green Design organizations, Company Practices and Policies, The Data Center,

the Core of the IT Department and IT Recycling

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 In modern businesses the Information Technology department has become a vital

part. This single department can affect the entire company in ways no other department

can because all modern businesses use numerous different technology systems. Ever

since the first computers were created, businesses have found various ways to make them

useful. However the IT department is usually always the one department that uses the

most amount of power which in turn is an excessive amount of overhead for a company

as well as a source for toxic waste when the systems are outdated and thrown in the

landfill as trash. Making IT “Green” can not only save company’s money but help save

our world by making it a better place through reducing and/or eliminating wasteful

practices and using non-toxic materials.

Green Design Organizations

Making IT Green starts with better technology design concepts such as the use of

non-toxic and sustainable materials and focusing on energy-efficiency. According to one

source, “Information Technology energy demand is growing 12 times faster than the

overall demand for energy” and “Data centers emit over 150 metric tons of CO2 per year,

and the volume is increasing rapidly. (As a point of reference, a car produces 18 pounds

of CO2 for every gallon of gasoline it uses.)” Baroudi, Hill, Reinhold, and Senxian(2009)

In order to promote these ideas and create standards and regulations various organizations

have been formed. Many technology companies actually belong several of these to

further there goals of becoming more “green”.

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Some of these green organizations are:

1. “The Green Grid is a global consortium of IT companies and professionals seeking to

improve energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems around the

globe.” Board members of The Green Grid include AMD, EMC, Intel, APC, HP,

Microsoft, Dell, IBM, and Oracle. thegreengrid.org (2010)

2. “The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is a nonprofit group of eco-conscious

consumers, businesses and conservation organizations. The Initiative was started in the

spirit of WWF’s Climate Savers program which has mobilized over a dozen companies

since 1999 to cut carbon dioxide emissions, demonstrating that reducing emissions is

good business.” And “By 2010, we seek to reduce global CO2 emissions from the

operation of computers by 54 million tons per year1, equivalent to the annual output of 11

million cars or 10–20 coal-fired power plants.” climatesaverscomputing.org (2010)

3. Green Electronics Council supports the effective green design, manufacturing, and

recyclability of technology. greenelectronicscouncil.org (2010)

4. Alliance to Save Energy promotes energy efficiency worldwide to achieve a healthier

economy, a cleaner environment and greater energy security. http://ase.org/ (2010)

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5. Global e-Sustainability Initiative is a global forum for the improvement and promotion

of products, services and access to ICT for the benefit of human development and

sustainable development. http://gesi.org/ (2010)

6. Underwriters Laboratories, a company that got its start in product safety over 115 years

ago is now creating a new branch of their company, “UL Environment” This new branch

will work as third party independent source creating green standards for manufacturers,

new product certifications, and have advisory services available.

ulenvironment.com (2010)

7. The U.S. Environmental Agency is a government agency that was created to protect

human health and to safeguard the natural environment. This agency also created a joint

program called Energy Star with the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Dept of Energy.

“The ENERGY STAR label was established to: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and

other pollutants caused by the inefficient use of energy; and Make it easy for consumers

to identify and purchase energy-efficient products that offer savings on energy bills

without sacrificing performance, features, and comfort.” energystar.gov (2010)

With the creation of these and many other organizations the concept of making a

business “green” is no longer seen as just a fad, trend or some public relations spin. The

Green movement is now a serious method of conserving resources, saving money, and

Green IT 6
helping our planet out at the same time. It is in the best interest of modern businesses to

make their company’s greener simply because it’s a sound business strategy.

Company Practices and Policies

Regulations, standards, and design concepts are only a start in Green IT. The next

step must be actual technology company’s using green practices. Michael Dell once said

“I have always believed that IT is an engine of an efficient economy; it can also drive a

greener one.” Forbes Magazine ( 2009) and Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft said,

"Addressing global warming is a responsibility we take very seriously at Microsoft."

Thinking such as this is necessary to create a better company, especially with the IT

department. And many of the major technology company’s have started their own green

movement programs.

“In a December 2008 report published by the Ceres investor coalition, IBM was

named the top company for climate change strategy and practices across all major

technology and consumer companies. The report analyzed climate change governance

practices at 63 of the world's largest retail, pharmaceutical, technology, apparel and other

consumer-facing companies.” IBM.com (2010)

IBM has created a new service called Green Sigma. This service is designed to

help governments and companies reduce their effect on the environment and decrease

costs on a permanent basis. IBM.com (2010) and “12 steps to a greener, more sustainable

electronics supply chain” is an article by Paul Brody, partner for IBM. In this article he

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describes 12 ways that a company can create a greener supply chain. These steps are 1.
Redesign the product, 2. Reconfigure Manufacturing, 3. Shift to green suppliers, 4.

Shorten distances, 5. Alter service level agreements, 6. Shrink packaging, 7. Plan for

reverse supply chain activity, 8. Consolidate shipments, 9. Plan shorter routes, 10.

Coordinate with partners, 11. Take a lifecycle view, and lastly but most importantly 12.

Start Now. IBM.com (2010)

Microsoft has implemented a number of programs to reduce its environmental

footprint and is working to make its datacenters more energy efficient. One example is

they use hydroelectricity to power its Quincy, Wash. datacenter. Dell’s approach to

Green IT is simple: Greener, Scalable, Upgradable Architecture; Efficient Configuration

and Delivery; Engagement and Empowerment; and Product Recovery and Recycling.

And lastly Apple works on its Green practices by watching its products entire life cycle

from manufacturing, to transportation, to product use, and finally recycling.

Clean Production Action has created a method they call the Green Screen and it is

based on the Principles of Green Chemistry and the work of the US Environmental

Protection Agency’s Design for Environment program. This method uses four

benchmarks (1) Avoid – Chemical of High Concern, (2) Use – But search for safer

substitute, (3) Use – but still opportunity for improvement, and (4) Prefer – safer

chemical. These 4 steps create a standard by which to measure themselves in an effect to

become greener. cleanproduction.org(2010)

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“Hewlett-Packard (HP) began using the Green Screen to assess alternatives to

chemicals being restricted in their products and has assessed more than 50 replacement

materials for brominated and chlorinated flame retardants, phthalates, PVC and other

substances of concern. HP is now the world's leading practitioner of the Green Screen

tool, and the results of assessments have begun to inform decision making on key

replacement materials.” cleanproduction.org(2010)

With major technology company’s leading the way with green practices, this

enables smaller companies to follow in the footsteps and adopt more green practices. As

more and more companies are adapting to a full cradle to cradle concept with technology

the idea of being “green” itself will eventually fade away and “green” will simply

become standard business practice.

The Data Center, the Core of the IT Department

New buildings and data centers have the luxury of building green from the ground

up, but older data centers will need to be updated. In order to make a data center more

“green” you will first need to know what practices are in use and document it. And

servers are a major issue of data centers as they use a lot of electricity and create a lot of

heat. Waste heat is a fact of data centers, recycling this heat is a very green practice. An

example of this is IBM has a data center that uses waste heat to heat a swimming pool.

One source was quoted “Current data center energy bills total more than $7 billion a year

and are rising sharply” and “In typical data centers, each 100 units of energy production

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drives (on average) only 3 units of productive computing.” Baroudi, Hill, Reinhold, and
Senxian(2009) With this in mind, a company must be very mindful of its Data Center.

Virtualization is a software platform that allows a server to run multiple operating

systems. This allows a data center to run with fewer servers and still maintain the same

computing ability and thus conserve on heat and electricity. Cooling systems are a

necessary part of data centers because of the excessive amounts of heat created by

equipment. The first objective to make a cooling system greener is to understand exactly

what equipment is creating the heat. The second objective of green retrofitting a data

center is completely sealing and insulating the data center. The third objective is to

decide Air conditioning vs. Liquid Cooling: To have the most effective cooling system a

company must evaluate the pros and cons of all systems to understand what is best.

Another thing to consider is would it be better to cool the entire room, cool the actual

equipment that is creating heat, or take the waste heat from the Data Center and make use

of it as in the example of the pool above.

Alternative Power systems are sources of energy used to power the data center

that not from the normal coal, petroleum, and nuclear plants. The use of these systems

can completely change a business in multiple ways. The most evident being that of

reduced or zero energy bills for the business. This can save a company thousands of

dollars and is thus well worth the investment for the technology. There are four common

alternative power sources that businesses use and they are solar power, which can be

Green IT 10

collected in two different ways. The first is photovoltaic which converts the suns rays
directly into electricity and Thermal which uses the suns heat to boil fluids to push steam

turbine generators. The second is hydropower created by the use water through dams to

create energy. The third power source is geothermal is a energy source that tapped by

pumping water deep into the earths core and then using the return steam to push turbines

and the forth one is wind power, it is usually created by massive triple-bladed windmills

that convert kinetic energy into power by turning a generator built inside the main

housing. These windmills can be built over huge land areas, for example those in the

Midwest of the US or out in the stormy seas as they are in Norway. There are many other

ways to create alternative power but these four are by far the most heavily used by big

business.

Using these various methods you can update an old Data center and make it far

more green and modern. Google has built one of their systems in an old steel making

factory because it had it own hydro dam to make power. If the company had to buy the

power it would cost them thousands of dollars per month to run, so going a Greener route

by using the old building and the preexisting hydro power plant makes the most

economical sense. There is also a Federal Express Building with a solar panel system

that covers the entire roof of the building which in turn is stored in massive battery banks.

This system is so powerful it is able to maintain 80% to 100% of the power needed to run

the entire building both day and by night. By showing these examples, I am proving the

idea that going Green is very smart for the bottom line. As a business, you can use all the

electricity that you want, as long as you make it yourself.

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IT Recycling
 To complete the green IT cycle you need to have departments or outside

organizations that can take the equipment when it’s outdated and be able to recycle it for

reusable materials. “E-waste is filled with hazardous materials like cadmium, mercury,

lead, carcinogenic PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), and many elements that are not

biodegradable and can leach into water and soil.” Baroudi, Hill, Reinhold, and

Senxian(2009)

There are also many company’s that specialize in the recycling of materials and

others that assist in finding company’s that recycle materials such as Earth 911.

Earth 911 has taken environmental hotlines, web sites and other information sources

nationwide, and consolidated them into one network. Once you contact the Earth 911

network, you will find community-specific information on eCycling and much more.

Another company is I.T. Recycle Now, A retailer/wholesaler of new and used I.T.

equipment. Their specialty is refurbishing servers for resale. However, they work in

many different areas including personal computing, networking equipment, and other

electronic product. Other company’s are Recycle-it America which was created to help

people recycle electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops in a smart, responsible

and eco-friendly way. My Green Electronics provided by the Consumer Electronics

Association, this site is a resource for consumers wishing to purchase green products

and/or searching for local opportunities to recycle or donate used electronics.

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Also The Electronic Industries Alliance's eCycling Central Web site helps you find reuse,
recycling and donation programs for electronics products in your state.

Conclusion

In the end, technology companies must consider the entire lifespan of IT systems.

From the manufacturing with non-toxic and sustainable materials following through to

the end of the system where it is properly disposed of and recycled so that the materials

can be used again to create new technology systems. We can no longer be thoughtless

about the resources we use because that mindset is slowly destroying our environment.

Not only is a cradle to cradle design concept good for the environment but it’s also a

good business model because it helps conserve resources and money.

Lastly, I would like to say don’t stop with the IT department. Make your entire

business Green in everyway possible. Reduce as much paper as possible and recycle it

when you can. Recycle the water the company uses by collecting rain water and filter it

for sinks and drinking fountains, take drain water from sinks and water fountains and use

the grey water for flushing the toilets. Encourage your employees to carpool, ride

bicycles, or use any other mass transit transportation. Build electric car recharging

stations to encourage the buying and using of electric cars. Use “Sun-Dome tubular

skylights” ( http://www.sun-dome.com/) to illuminate your office with natural sunlight

instead of electric bulbs. If the roof isn’t covered in solar panels then build a living roof

to cool the building and provide for wildlife. A green roof can also be a good location for

a break area for employees. These are but a few small ideas you can use to make your

business more Green which is good for the Environment and the stock-holders.

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References:
The Green Grid (2010) Retrieved from http://www.thegreengrid.org/

Climate Savers Computing Initiative (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/

Green Electronics Council (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.greenelectronicscouncil.org/

UL Environment (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.ulenvironment.com/ulenvironment/eng/pages/

U.S. Environmental Agency (2010) Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/

Energy Star Program (2010) Retrieved from http://www.energystar.gov/

Energy, the Environment and IBM (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/green/index.shtml

Microsoft: Green IT taking the first step (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.microsoft.com/environment/our_commitment/articles/green_guide.aspx
Apple and the Environment (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.apple.com/environment/

HP Eco Solutions (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/index.html

Green Suppliers Network (2010) Retrieved from

https://www.greensuppliers.gov/gsn/home.gsn

Clean Production Action (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.cleanproduction.org/Electronics.Green.php

Baroudi, Hill, Reinhold, and Senxian (2009) Green IT for Dummies,

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

What is Virtualization? (2010) Retrieved from

http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/what-is-virtualization.html

I.T. Recycle Now: Obsolete Electronic and I.T. Equipment Recycler (2010) Retrieved

from http://www.itrecyclenow.com/

Recycle-it America (2010) Retrieved from http://www.recycleitamerica.com/