Green IT Practices

Presented by David Deal, CEOCommunity IT Innovators

www.citidc.com@CommunityIT, @ddealdc

Takeaways

1. To increase awareness of the environmental impact of desktops, servers, and other ICT equipment

2. To provide guidance and opportunities to adopt technology practices that will help reduce that impact and reduce costs

3. To discuss select solutions that will help nonprofits and social mission organizations reduce the environmental impact of their ICT AND use ICT to reduce their operational impact on the environment.

Poll

• Organization Size? • Who knows what these are: • Desktop Power Management? • EPEAT? • vSphere?

• Deliberate green efforts underway?

Agenda

• Hardware • Software• Green Practices

• And…

INTERACTION!

Environmental Impact• 2% of global CO2 emitted by ICT (Gartner)• 50-70% of the lifetime energy consumption of a

computer is used before it is ever turned on• eWaste makes up 2% of solid waste in the U.S.

and is the fastest growing segment

Environmental Impact

• A PC and monitor take 530 lbs of fossil fuels, 58 lbs of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water to produce (UN Resource Saver)

• 50% of our 50-person company’s emissions are from business travel (commuting, clients, flights, etc.)

HARDWARE

“Green” HW Considerations

1. What you buy

2. How long you use it

3. How you dispose of it

Device Power Consumption

• Desktop: 70-120W++• Laptop: 20-40W• Thin client: 8-12W

(For use with Terminal Server or Virtual Desktops)

• Desktop/laptop in sleep mode: 2-10W

• LCD 35-40W vs CRT 80-120W

Ordering Green

KEY POINT: When you buy desktops or printers, check www.epeat.net!

Typical Replacement Cycle• Laptops: 2-4 years• Desktops: 3-5 years• Thin clients: 4-6 years

• Monitors: longer!

KEY POINT: Thin clients often have the longest useful life, although using hosted apps or repurposing can help extend the useful life of laptops and desktops.

Retiring Old Computers Responsibly Seek to reuse instead of recycle

Find a refurbisher Partner with a small local nonprofit to get

it into the community Recycling as a last option

Power Management

• Smart power strips (for desktops)

• Power strips with timers (for printers)

SOFTWARE

The First Place Techies Look...The Server Room!

Server Virtualization

• Energy reduction up to 82% (Gartner)• Small & medium-sized NPO’s (<100 PCs) often

virtualize 4-8 servers on 1 physical server• Software: VMware, MS Hyper-V, Citrix, etc.

…but workstations may be a greater opportunity!

• 3x the energy consumption of the server room• Cut PC energy use up to 70%, save about $50 per

desktop (NRDC)• Free options for standalone PCs:

• Built-in settings in Windows, Macs• Verdiem Edison (downloadable)

• Options for networked PCs: • Faronics PowerSave• Verdiem Surveyor

Virtualization

(Server-based)

Desktop Virtualization

• Desktop virtualization makes energy savings possible by allowing the use of terminals instead of desktops or laptops

• Also, roaming access = travel reduction!

Hosted Software

• a.k.a. Cloud Computing, SaaS• Salesforce, DIA, Google Apps, Constant Contact, MS BPOS

(e.g. Hosted MS Exchange)• Theoretically greener due to: • Better use of server resources• Remote access reducing travel

• But to realize this you need to: • Turn off old server(s)• Use it to reduce travel

• Also, is their power source cleaner than yours?

(TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED)

GREEN PRACTICES

Green Practices

• Utilizing IT to green operations

• Examples: • Reduce paper consumption• Smart buildings• Online faxing• Travel reduction• Working with distributed teams

Efficient Printing

• Duplexing - make it the default!(double-sided printing)

• Consolidate printers (reducing printer-to-staff ratio)

Travel Reduction

• Reduce commuter and business travel• Travel contributes to 50% of CITI’s total

emissions(even with 75% of travel done via public transit,

biking, and walking!)

• Ingredients: Remote & mobile access to ICT resources - data, voice, video

• Numerous studies confirming moderate to significant positive environmental impact

Working with Distributed Teams

• Web conferencing: GoToMeeting, WebEx, Ready Talk

• File sharingBox.net, Dropbox, BPOS/SharePoint, Jungle Disk,

Drop.io, Google Docs

• Comprehensive hosted apps: Hyperoffice, Zoho, Google Apps, (MS BPOS+Office

Web Apps coming)

• Extranets/project collaboration: Basecamp, SharePoint

Travel Reduction: Voice

• Voice over IP & IP Telephony• Virtual/hosted PBX • Lower startup costs, often lower calling costs• Cost-effective for smaller organizations• BUT: unless the vendor also provides the data

connection (T1), they still don’t control call quality

• May not be for you if you have a large number of

users, high call volume, or if you need certain features (ACD)

Travel Reduction: Video

•Peer-to-peer, small groups• Skype (+VuRoom for group video?)• Quality?

•Hosted• WebEx (up to 6), etc.

•On-premises• Polycom, LifeSize, Cisco, etc. • Requires appropriate Internet bandwidth

Questions

•What is one easy IT-related step you want to take to green your organization? •What is a “stretch” green IT solution you

would implement if your organization had the resources? • Any other ideas to share? •What was your most significant takeaway

from today?

Conclusion

• There’s a lot you can do to green your IT that does not require either behavioral change by staff or tremendous resources. • Two high-impact starting points may be

desktop power management (easy) and travel reduction (maybe more challenging).