Living and breathing green
December 11, 2009
Sustainable ICT should save companies money instead of incurring additional costs. A new white paper on Green ICT shows how it’s done.
With a contribution of 2% to the world’s CO2 emissions, IT is no innocent bystander. This is why IT is increasingly in the spotlight when it comes to the topic of sustainability. However, ideas about saving resources don't bring anything when these ideas are not actually implemented.
The white paper discusses two fundamental approaches on how companies can decrease their ICT-related carbon footprint: for example, a step-by-step process can decrease energy consumption at data centers by 75%. Virtualization technologies are better at utilizing existing computing power. And optimized climate control of data centers alone saves up to 20%. Moreover, the use of thin clients reduces greenhouse gases by a good 45% according to the calculations of the Fraunhofer Institute.
15 fewer orbits
Companies can also implement complete corporate processes based on IT solutions so that they release less CO2. For example, logistics company DHL set up package stations that are linked by a data network. By using self-service machines for package pick-up and shipment, companies can combine package transports. This translates into 600,000 fewer kilometers driven by trucks.
