As an administratively intensive sector, with a significant reliance on IT infrastructure, energy directly attributable to information technology in the government sector is significant. Gartner estimates that as much as 40% of the total energy of an organisation in this sector can be directly attributable to IT. Hence, any savings that the IT department can achieve will have a significant impact on the overall performance of the department in question, particularly relating to emissions and energy reduction which are so critical within the Australian context.
Australian Government ICT Sustainability Plan 2010 – 2015
Australian Government agencies are now well underway in addressing the requirements and their responsibilities under the Australian Government ICT Sustainability Plan 2010 – 2015.
Australian Government agencies currently manage significant quantities of ICT equipment, estimated at 350,000 PCs and laptops, 14,000 servers, and 37,500 imaging devices, as well as the consumables used in this equipment such as toner cartridges and copy paper. This volume of activity raises significant environmental management concerns over the life cycle of products, mainly relating to energy use, carbon emissions, e-waste and hazardous materials, packaging and the sustainable use of precious and scarce metals.
In this context, the Australian Government ICT Sustainability Plan 2010 – 2015 involves the implementation of sustainable procurement principles and practices in relation to ICT. Sustainable procurement aims to promote more environmentally responsible products and services, improve product stewardship, avoid unnecessary demand and consumption, and assess ICT products on a life cycle impact basis. These principles are introduced into Australian Government ICT procurement processes through the use of mandatory environmental standards which sets a minimum level of environmental performance for relevant ICT acquisitions.
Managing energy consumption:
Direct reductions within the IT department:
Focus on the low hanging fruit first. The lowest is actually the desktop and monitor infrastructure which can use as much as 39% of the total energy footprint. Powering off PC’s
automatically can create some significant savings for any organisation with 1000′s of devices. NightWatchman, one of the world’s leading solutions in this area, can save organisations as much as $75 per desktop per annum and still ensure that patching and management occurs through its reliable and scaleable WakeUP technology.
The datacentre should be the next area of focus, which can account for around 23% of the total energy of the IT department. Here care should be taken to ensure that the datacentre is designed efficiently with hot and cold aisles and the correct temperature and humidity controls. A datacentre that is set at temperatures that are too cold can be a significant drain on energy.
Further savings in the datacentre include virtualisation which can have as much as an 80% saving on energy. Look out for emerging technologies that will place servers into lower power states, reducing significant energy overnight when servers are still running but doing no productive work.
Services
Our services portfolio provides a roadmap for ICT organisations to embark upon a sustainable IT strategy. Our engagement model starts with IT Footprinter , which provides organisations with a baseline measurement of carbon emissions. IT Analyser provides an assessment of the IT service from procurement through to disposal of assets. Finally IT Transformer assists you with strategy planning and architecting a green IT service.
We have built up a wealth of intellectual capital in this field and offer customers a simple and painless engagement model with deliverables that are pragmatic and relevant, adding real value and improving the environmental credentials of the organisation.
