by Barry Marcus

Created on: March 22, 2009   Last Updated: April 12, 2009

Faced with the phenomenon of global warming heralding dramatic climate change, business has come under pressure to "go green". Mid-sized companies are impacted as much as the large corporations but have more limited resources to deal with the problem. As major energy consumers, the Information Technology management have a key contribution to make in the fight against global warming. Many CIOs may be alarmed at how to improve their ecological footprint, but the good news is that going green can result in significant cost savings.

IT represents a significant cost to any business. It may come as some surprise to learn that almost 48% of IT spending is consumed by energy demands. The US Department of Energy reports that almost 13% of commercial energy usage originates from IT. Desktop computers in the US
and Europe consume an estimated seven gigawatts of power every day.

Power consumption is not the only concern of IT departments. Computer hardware contains hazardous materials that include barium, beryllium, phosphorous, mercury, cadmium and lead. Disposal of computer equipment poses an ever increasing threat to the environment.

Computer peripherals such as printers pose additional problems in the disposal of spent toner and ink cartridges and excessive use of paper for daily reports.

For a mid-sized business looking for ways to "go green" there are a number of imperatives:

* The cost of the venture

* The resources required

* The size of the investment

But going green may achieve some major benefits:

* Significant cost savings

* An improved environment for management and staff

* Higher productivity

* Less damage to the environment

* An improved image as a socially and environmentally responsible company

Going green will involve some or all of the following steps:

* Reducing energy consumption

* Reducing waste and improving the life-cycle management of computer equipment

* Using less paper

* Creating a more environmentally friendly working environment

* Considering work from home options

Many of the options to achieve a greener environment require no initial investment.

* Power consumption reduction

A significant reduction in power consumption may be achieved by some simple measures.

Configure all desktop computers to use the standard Windows power saving facility. Simply enable the power-saving option on each computer to allow inactive computer to go into standby and to hibernate. Major cost savings can be achieved. General Electric expects to save $2.3 million dollars per annum by simply

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