When one talks of the green movement, especially green IT, people are
befuddled. While it may not need a high IQ to derive that green IT is about
being sensitive toward nature and good environmental practices, people also tend
to associate it with high costs and social responsibility. And this mysticism
has been the bane of green IT.
For far too long, green has often been portrayed as a privilege of the hoi
polloi, something the smaller and medium companies can leave for a later day.
Thus, most of the CEOs, though conscious about the need to be clean and green,
shy away from it thinking it would be costly and tedious. This misconception is
the very purpose behind Dataquests Green Strategy 2008 event.
The tricity event, in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, intends to demystify green,
and do so in a very pragmatic manner. The emphasis is on business case rather
than hazy concepts like social and moral obligations. Green Strategy is designed
to be a high-powered discussion between industry people and the stakeholders on
what can be done to curtail costs and be productive in an eco-friendly way. CIOs
from different industry verticals from mammoth banks to small ancillary firms
will come on a common platform and share their views and learnings on the
subject.
Yes, it is indeed possible to be profitably green, if it is still hard for
you to swallow, consider the following:
Every year $5 bn is spent on powering computers in Asia, 66% of which is for
supporting systems in idle mode
Gartner predicts that by 2010, eco-friendly issues will take a spot among the
top five IT management concerns of over 50% government agencies in North
America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Australia.
Power cost is a huge component for every company, be it manufacturing,
banking or even IT services. Companies that have large data centers or big
servers farm are under stress to reduce the power uptake to stay productive. Not
only that, the modern architecture is also to be blamed for the rise in the
power bill. The impressive glass behemoth structures that line the streets of
Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad and others are big guzzlers of energy, as they
tend to trap the heat inside, companies have to employ heavy air-conditioning to
keep offices at a comfortable temperature, resulting in more spending.
In short, there are many inefficiencies that a company can cut down upon.
Much of this comes from the top, yet a lot of it can be initiated in the middle
and senior management itself. Take, for instance, the habit of switching off the
desktops while leaving for home in the evening. It is merely a case of
sensitizing employees. There are so many small things that go a long way in
terms of conservation of resources.
Some very interesting suggestions were thrown at the Mumbai event. For
instance, Alok Kumar, VP, IT, Reliance Industries, spoke about how Reliance was
looking at saving costs by means of encouraging employees to work from home. We
are setting up VPN connections between the employee and the company and they
need not commute to office at all. This not only raises the productivity and
curtails the cost, but also look at the savings in terms of environment. So much
petrol and other resources are saved, he said. Similarly, KK Raman, CTO, BPL
Mobile, spoke about how VoIP could be effectively used to cut back on managers
physically traveling to different places for one-on-one meetings. Anil Jhala,
CFO, Idea Cellular, spoke of how the Aditya Birla Group was taking active
interest in solar energy.
The big surprise of the Green Strategy 2008 event has been the interest that
it has generatednot the fact that it generated interest but the amount of
interest has really been quite astounding. Every city sports a house full sign
much like a Bollywood blockbuster. This proves that Indian companies are curious
and keen about going green.
According to a study done by Springboard Research, cost savings will drive
green IT investments, and vendors must step up to the plate on raising
awareness. The report also stated that large enterprises in Asia comprise the
largest consumers of electricity used for computing at 37%, followed by consumer
IT users at 34%, and the small/medium enterprise (SME) and small office/home
office (SOHO) segment at 29%.
"Computing devices have a significantly large and unrecognized carbon
footprint. For example, an average-sized server has the same carbon footprint as
a mid-sized sports utility vehicle getting 15 miles-to-the-gallon," said Bob
Hayward, research VP, Springboard Research in a press release. "As companies
become more accurate in determining what percentage of energy costs are
allocated to the IT department, you will see cost savings as the key driver of
Green IT investments," he added.
IT vendors are also becoming conscious and are increasing their efforts in
the green IT space. The largest amount of spending by IT vendors is focused on
increasing the energy efficiency of their products (40% of spending). This is
closely followed by efforts on recycling and disposal (30% of spending) and
manufacturing in a more environmentally friendly way (25% of spending), the
report further stated.
In conclusion, going green is not an altruistic proposition. It is a
profitable business case. Companies can work out the RoI and see for themselves
the benefits that can be derived. And, the Dataquest Green Strategy event is a
start in that regard; it is not about finding answers, but raising questions.
Shashwat DC
shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in