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June 11, 2008 The State of the Art in Sustainable IT SLM Home | Green IT News & Ideas | Connections | Events | About

Afraid of the Dark? Start by Turning “IT” Off with Targeted User Groups Simply switching off idle IT equipment can be a surefire way to go green and save green. The EPA estimates that the typical 1,000-PC environment can save $40,000 annually by using existing power management features. Considering the scale of most corporate IT operations, those savings can add up. Hewlett-Packard, for example, estimates that it saves $600,000 each year by activating the otherwise dormant energy-saving features on their 183,000 monitors worldwide. While the financial and environmental benefits seem compelling, recent findings reveal that most IT managers are afraid of turning out the lights on idle servers and PCs. Reasons cited vary from old habits, to bad experiences, to service level agreements, to unclear ROI and budget control. To move beyond this fear of the dark, IT managers should take baby steps by targeting the users that will be impacted, asking for their approval, and then tracking the environmental and cost benefits: For PCs, don’t start with the power users who demand “always on” PC needs with little patience for start-up time such as traders, call center reps and executives. Rather, focus on the users who are often away from their desk but leave their PCs on. For idle servers, target those in your test and development environments since the impact of any potential glitch would be less costly than in a production environment. However, get the buy-in of your applications-development team to understand or revise their availability requirements. While this staged approach might not offer the instant gratification of immediate results, it should set you up for long-term success and adoption of power management solutions. ~Doug Washburn, SLM Advisor What do you think? Post Your Comment Here! Also This Week... Sun's Open Work Program Saves Energy, Time, and Money Sun Microsystems has released new numbers detailing the carbon, commute, and cost benefits of its Open Work program, which encourages employees to telework whenever possible. Read more... Verizon Asks Suppliers to Up IT Product Energy Efficiency 20% Verizon has established new energy-efficiency standards for the IT equipment it buys, requiring manufacturers to improve the energy performance of their products by an estimated 20%. Read more... HP Backs New Green IT Products, Research Hewlett-Packard is looking to develop new markets for its green IT products, funding new technology research aimed at boosting datacenter energy efficiency by 75%. Read more... IT Vendors Urged to Tailor Green Pitches by Geography, Sector The question for IT vendors is no longer "Do companies care about green computing?" but rather "Where are they located?", according to a new report from Forrester Research. Read more... Verdiem's Surveyor Reboot Tackles "PC Insomnia" Verdiem has upgraded its popular Surveyor power-management software to cut IT energy waste and reduce PC energy consumption by as much as 60%. Read more... Dell's New PC for Small Business Cuts Energy Costs 47% Dell has unveiled an energy-efficient PC designed exclusively for small businesses, which the computermaker says uses about half the energy of comparable models. Read more... More Green IT News & Tools... We want to hear from you! Post your comments or questions below any SLM news story and we'll feature the best of them here. (Note: You must be a registered SLM user to post. Not yet signed up? Click here!) Forward to a Friend! What Did You Miss at Sustainable Brands '08? Even if you joined us in Monterey, Calif., chances are you didn't make it to every workshop and session. Fortunately, we deployed a tireless team of bloggers to catch you up on what you missed. Click here for the latest research, practical lessons, and key takeaways from Sustainable Brands 08! Solution Providers Green IT Saves WaMu Lots of Green CIO Debora Horvath is leading the effort to cut Washington Mutual's computing costs and environmental impact. Here's how WaMu got started, takes advantage of its green-thinking employees and is already saving millions. (CIO) Listen now... Cisco’s VP of Green Engineering on Datacenter Efficiency Cisco last year revamped its innovation group, making a number of key hires including Paul Marcoux, a former American Power Conversion exec and founding member of The Green Grid. In this interview, Marcoux offers his take on the problems that datacenters face, as well as the opportunities startups have to make a difference. (Venture Beat) Listen now... Find Peers and Partners If you haven’t already joined the fastest growing online sustainable business community, create a profile now and start connecting. Advertise on SLM! Become a Sustainable Life Media advertiser or sponsor and reach thousands of business leaders looking for product or service solutions to help them build their sustainability story. Click here to learn more. Have a story you want told? Send it to us!

Sustainable Life Media is home for business professionals looking to build new value and competitive advantage by innovating more sustainable processes, practices and products. We bring you top stories related to the what, who and how of environmental and social innovation, and help you connect with thought leaders, peers, partners and solutions providers that can help you quickly reach your goals. This work is licensed under a CreativeCommons License. Copyright Sustainable Life Media Inc. 2008

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