HOW CUTTING YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT HELPS EVERYONE
7 January 2009, The Journal p 28

As world leaders reflect on December’s gathering in Copenhagen to discuss a global effort to combat climate change, we’re also seeing businesses across the country taking measures to monitor and manage their own impact on the environment. Matthew Lamb, from North East IT consultancy Waterstons, explains how your business can be greener when using technology.

With the climate change debate rarely out of the news, consumers are becoming more aware of the issues, and organisations which ignore their concerns risk being alienated.

By minimizing fuel and energy wastage, and hence reducing carbon output, businesses can offset rising fuel costs as well as generating “green” publicity to send a positive message to their customers.

Here at Waterstons, we have created a Green IT forum which meets every month to discuss latest developments and ways in which technology can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of the business and our clients.

We have found that user workstations are often the worst offenders for guzzling energy, especially if they are left on overnight or have power supplies with poor efficiency ratings.

Make it company policy to shut down machines when they’re not being used. You could also install Eco Buttons (eco-button.com) which give a strong visual reminder to staff to save electricity when they’re away from their machines.

Energy efficiency ratings for hardware such as power supply units for desktop PCs are now often included in the product’s specification on the manufacturer’s website and so can easily be compared.

Significant savings in carbon output – as well as cost – can also be obtained by reducing unnecessary travel through the use of software like Microsoft Office Communication Server and Live Meeting.

These products provide remote presentation, video and audio conferencing, and real-time collaboration on virtual whiteboards, across the internet, often for a fraction of the company’s annual travel expenses bill.

Additionally, products like Microsoft SharePoint Server allow colleagues to share all types of documents, review each other’s changes, and define a chain of actions which is associated with a particular document.

For example, Bob can type up a sales report and upload it into a document library, triggering a workflow routine which sends an automatic email alert to his colleague Jane, who reviews the document and makes some changes, before submitting it to their head office manager, Liz, for approval. There’s no need for anyone to print the document out and if Liz wants to know who added a particular section to the report, she can check the version history in SharePoint instead of calling everyone in for a meeting.

Putting technology at the heart of your organisation’s environmental policy can save money and improve efficiency, whilst reducing your carbon footprint.

The original article can be viewed at http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/science-and-technology/2010/01/07/how-cutting-your-carbon-footprint-helps-everyone-51140-25545137/