Sustainability - reducing your IT carbon footprint
1st Nov 2021
The IT industry has a dramatic impact on the environment. E-waste, energy consumption and carbon emissions are major challenges facing the industry and every company that makes up the market. In 2019, there were 54 million tons of e-waste created. By 2030, that number is project to reach 74 million. To make matters worse, less than 20% is correctly processed using a reduce/reuse/recycle model. E-waste is only part of the problem, though. Energy use and carbon emissions are a significant problem in the industry. The sector is predicted to use 20% of all the world’s electricity by 2025 and emit up to 5.5% of all carbon emissions.
Every IT manager has thought about their company’s environmental footprint, but becoming “sustainable” or adopting a “Green IT” policy can seem overwhelming. The good news is that there are a number of easy choices IT organizations can make to reduce their impact on the environment. Best of all, those choices can and do help reduce IT operating costs and can even create marketing advantages over your competitors. Some foundational strategies include:
- Developing a comprehensive strategy starts with an IT Asset Management (ITAM) analysis of the current inventory.
- A lifecycle approach to product ownership can extract value from outdated equipment.
- Making informed vendor and process choices can also help reduce carbon footprint and operating costs.
Commit to ITAM
ITAM provides a framework for analyzing and managing your entire IT arsenal. The process starts with a comprehensive inventory of existing equipment. There are many software tools that can help with this process. Once you have a handle on your assets, it’s possible to optimize their deployment and management. The Velocity Asset Management Portal can help you get your arms around your IT inventory.
Key ITAM questions
- What do we have?
- Are we spending money and energy operating equipment we don’t need?
- Is our data center energy efficient?
- Is it time to replace outdated, inefficient equipment?
- Can we reduce power use with different equipment?
Think about the full lifecycle
Comprehensive IT lifecycle management starts before you’ve placed your order and ends after the asset leaves your building. As you evaluate purchases, consider your vendors’ Green IT policies.
- How do they manage their component purchases and vendors?
- How do they regulate their energy usage in production?
- Do they offer buy-back programs?
When you’ve selected the vendor, consider the total cost of ownership of the asset.
- What’s the expected useful life of the product?
- Is it easily upgradeable without full replacement?
- What’s the anticipated energy usage/operating cost?
- What is its projected resale value?
Refurbished equipment offers a way to meet your performance needs at a much lower cost than new equipment. Especially in an era of limited availability of new IT equipment, refurbished equipment can keep your operation running smoothly without downtime. Velocity Tech Solutions offers a wide range of refurbished servers and storage devices for many applications.
Rent vs. Buy
For many organizations, cloud-based IT infrastructure can be an effective, efficient option for supporting mission critical applications. This is especially true for organizations with multiple locations or a distributed workforce. Security can be a concern and some legal requirements may prevent the exclusive use of cloud infrastructure, but virtualization and cloud storage can be cost effective and energy efficient. In some cases, private, on-site or hybrid cloud architectures can maintain security while offering the cost benefits of “renting” vs. “owning”. Our partner, Zadara, offers some of the strongest security and reliability in the cloud IT industry.
Reduce your costs, reduce your footprint, re-evaluate your IT infrastructure. IT organizations that consider the environmental ramifications of their purchasing and operations can uncover significant savings AND reduce their impact on the environment. It’s possible to do well, while doing better. Keep these benefits in mind as you consider your Green IT policies:
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership
- Lower impact on your neighborhood/world
- Lower operating costs
- Better performance
- Marketing advantage
- Reduced carbon emissions
- Meet or exceed legislative limits