Green IT Tricks For CIOs On Getting Started

India Inc’s spending on green IT and sustainability initiatives is estimated to double from US $35 billion in 2010 to US $70 billion in 2015, as reported by Gartner in ‘Hype Cycle for Green IT and Sustainability in India, 2011’.

It is no longer about championing the cause alone with the big bucks involved. It is now about ensuring that investments yield results and not go under wraps as yet another Corporate Social Responsibility funding.

Considering these expected investments and the resultant money that will be going out from CIOs’ pockets, ensuring its optimum utilisation is a prime concern on many a CIOs’ agenda. However, few realise that embarking on the green journey needs to be precluded by a well-thought out strategy, thorough preparation and advanced planning for it to be an effective one for their organisation.

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Right from determining the green goals to generating policies that will help achieve them, CIOs need to look at every aspect – from the slightest to the largest - on the green route that they pave. And, then orchestrating it all together to rake up the ‘perfect storm’ of green IT within their organisations.

Ganesh Ramamoorthy, Research Director, Gartner shares some valuable tips for CIOs on where and how to get started.

Measure To Start Off On The Right Note

The ‘green goals’ of the organisation should be implemented with a focus on actual energy use, rather than power cost reduction alone, because carbon reporting will become increasingly critical in the coming years.

Few organisations use a methodical approach to measuring the energy consumption of their ICT infrastructure. Even before implementing a formal energy reduction program it’s important to invest in first understanding the energy consumption pattern within the organisations in order for the program to achieve the green goals set out by the company.

Goal Alignment

Another imperative is to ensure that the enterprise’s environmental responsibility plan is well-aligned with its overall corporate objectives with respect to areas like usage of energy, e-waste and recycling, greenhouse gas reduction, etc.

Right Framework Makes The Difference

Organisations should use frameworks like the environmental product life cycle assessment for a more transparent and consistent approach to measuring, analysing and benchmarking the ICT infrastructure energy consumption across the company.

Championing The Cause

Champion the need for more effective energy management in ICT infrastructure in your organisation, and develop a comprehensive policy and a well-articulated plan for implementation to achieve this. This includes communicating to the various stakeholders as to why this is important.