Sustainable Computing: It's Not Easy Being Green

Computerworld - CIO William Hill had an admirable, if unanticipated, return on investment when he overhauled the IT infrastructure for Dayton, Ohio: He helped the environment. Hill's strategy included replacing the old setup -- a disorganized mix of 80 archaic networked terminals and numerous ad hoc PCs of varying ages and operating systems -- with thin clients for 60% of the staff and PCs for the rest, strategically positioned for optimum use. Hill opted for thin clients for technological and cost reasons, but says he saw a corresponding drop in how much energy his organization uses -- a drop that saves the city between $60,000 and $90,000 annually.

Hill is not the only one beginning to notice IT's impact on the environment. Other CIOs are starting to talk about how much energy their systems use and how they can be more efficient and thus friendlier to the environment. Even so, the real impetus for green computing -- also called sustainable computing -- is the green cash that eco-friendly decisions can save.

"There's always a company out there doing something to be eco-friendly, but for most companies, it has to make money sense," says Thomas Bolioli, president of Terra Novum LLC, a consulting company in Watertown, Mass., that advises IT departments on energy efficiency.

Bolioli says companies are starting to better balance their computing requirements with the desire to reduce energy consumption and the corresponding costs. They're employing power management software to power down PCs when not in use, and they're opting for more energy-efficient components, such as LCDs rather than CRT monitors, when refreshing hardware.

Early Sprouts

There's no doubt that sustainable computing is on the rise. A recent conference on opportunities for energy savings, co-sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, drew about 200 attendees, including some from big-name players such as AT&T Inc., Target Corp. and Visa U.S.A. Inc.

"It's great if people do things strictly for the benefit of the environment. But increasingly, the more resonant message is, 'Look, as competitive entities, we have to do more with less. So why not use less electricity as well?'" says Andrew Fanara, team leader at the EPA's Energy Star program, which promotes more energy-efficient IT infrastructures and policies.

The savings can be significant, says Jeff McNaught, vice president of marketing operations at Wyse Technology Inc. in San Jose. His company supplied the thin clients for the city of Dayton, and he says another customer, a Fortune 100 retailer, reports saving $5.7 million annually in electricity costs by using some 70,000 thin clients instead of PCs.