1. Green IT The Way Forward to Achieving Environmental Sustainability
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE ONE
Green IT The Way Forward to Achieving Environmental Sustainability
Professor San Murugesan
Faculty of Management
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2. What’s Green IT? Green IT refers to environmentally sound IT.
“Study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing computers efficiently and effectively with minimal impact on the environment.” -- San Murugesan
Thus, green IT adds the dimensions of:
environmental sustainability
the economics of energy efficiency, and
the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling.
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3. “Science is always wrong
“Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more.”
- George Bernard Shaw
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4. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND PROBLEMS
The growing accumulation of greenhouse gases is changing the world’s climate and weather patterns
For instance, the year 2005 was the warmest on record, and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since Global data shows that storms, droughts, and other weather-related disasters are growing more severe and more frequent.
To stop the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Electricity is a major source of climate change as it is generated by burning coal or oil, which releases carbon dioxide, pollutants and sulfur into the atmosphere.
These emissions can cause respiratory disease, smog, acid rain, and global climate change.
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5. The Environmental Impacts of IT
IT, too, affects the environment in several different ways.
Each stage of computer’s life — from manufacture to use to disposal — presents environmental problems.
Manufacture of computers and its various components consumes electricity, requires raw materials, chemicals, and water, and generates hazardous waste.
Computers, and cooling systems that cool the data centers consume electrical energy, and the total energy consumption is increasing. The increase in energy consumption results in increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Computer components contain toxic materials, which usually just get thrown out in the end. Most of this ends up in landfills, polluting the earth and contaminating water.
The increased amount of computers and their use, along with frequent replacement, makes the environmental impact of IT a major concern.
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6. Going Green with IT: Your Responsibility Towards Environmental Sustainability
There is increasing pressure on the IT industry and the users - businesses, and individuals — to make IT environmentally friendly throughout its lifecycle — from birth to death to rebirth.
As many believe, it is our social and corporate responsibility to safeguard our planet/environment.
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7. Green IT
On our part, we — IT professionals and industry, businesses, and users — can, and must, individually and collectively create a sustainable environment.
Let’s examine IT’s the environmental impact and then look at green IT measures that we can adopt.
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8. Green IT: Focus Areas Focus areas include:
Design for environmental sustainability
Energy-efficient computing
Power management
Data center design, layout, and location
Server virtualization
Responsible disposal and recycling
Regulatory compliance
Green metrics, assessment tools and methodology
Environment-related risk mitigation
Use of alternative energy sources
Eco-labeling of IT products
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9. IT Vendors are Turning to Green IT
A growing number of IT vendors are moving toward green IT.
Supplying “Green Computers” - design, manufacture, recycle
Tools to minimise and measure energy consumption, environmental pollution
Thereby they assist in building a green society and a green economy
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10. Sun Microsystems Australia, July 2007, http://au. sun
Sun Microsystems Australia, July 2007, com/edge/ /eco.jsp?cid=
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11. A Holistic Approach to Green IT
Green Use
of IT Systems
Green Manufacturing
Green Design
Green Disposal
Source: San Murugesan, IT Professional, 2008
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12. A Holistic Approach to Green IT
Green Use
of IT Systems
Green Manufacturing
Green Design
Green Disposal
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13. A Holistic Approach to Green IT
Green Use
of IT Systems
Green Manufacturing
Green Design
Green Disposal
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14. Green your computer’s entire lifecycle
Use computers judiciously
Redeploy,
reuse
Dispose
Refurbish, upgrade
Reuse parts
Use reprocessed
material
Donate
Green manufacture
of computers
Green Design
Recycle, reprocess materials
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15. Green Attitude: The First Step in Sustaining our Planet
Businesses and individuals must develop a positive attitude toward addressing environmental concerns and adopt forward-looking, green-friendly policies and practices.
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16. Green IT Strategy & Policy
Enterprise Green IT Strategy: Each enterprise must develop a holistic, comprehensive green IT strategy
Tactical incremental approach.
Strategic approach.
Deep green approach.
Green Supply Chain
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17. Using IT for Environmental Sustainability
Besides IT itself being green, it can support and leverage other environmental initiatives by offering innovative modeling, simulation, and decision support tools, such as:
Software tools for analyzing, modeling, and simulating environmental impact, and environmental risk management;
Platforms for eco-management, emission trading, or ethical investing;
Tools for auditing and reporting energy consumption and savings and for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions;
Environmental knowledge management systems,
Urban environment planning tools and systems;
Technologies and standards for interoperable environmental monitoring networks and smart in situ sensors networks
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18. Using IT to Create Green Awareness
IT could help create green awareness among IT professionals, businesses, and the general public by assisting in building communities, engaging groups in participatory decisions, and supporting education and green advocacy campaigns.
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19. The Way Forward: The Avenues
IT becoming Greener
Green IT Strategy & Policy – and Adoption
IT for Improving and leveraging Environmental Sustainability
Using IT for creating green awareness
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20. Discussion
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21. USING IT: ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND PRACTICES
Reducing energy consumption by PCs - Small changes to the ways we use computers collectively can significantly reduce energy consumption.
Enabling power management features.
Turning off the system when not in use.
Using screen saver.
Using thin-clients.
Reducing energy consumption by data centers
Energy Conservation.
Eco-Friendly Design.
Virtualization. Virtualization
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22. Resources
San Murugesan, “Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices”, IEEE IT Pro, Jan-Feb 2008.
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23. Greening Old, Unwanted Computers: The Three R's
You shouldn't throw away your old, no-longer-needed computers; you should give life to them in environmentally sound ways by reusing, refurbishing, or recycling them as follows:
Reuse -- use the computer for a different purpose, giving it to someone who needs it, or using functional components from a retired product
Refurbish -- make an existing product almost new again by reusing, reconditioning, and replacing computer parts
Recycle-- take component material and reprocessing it into the same material or breaking it down into constituent materials
Every time a part is reused, all the energy and emissions that were produced in its manufacturing and the processing of its materials are salvaged.
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24. The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
-- Albert Einstein
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25. Green IT – Information Resources
CIO’s “Green IT” page ( discusses how to stay out of the red with an environmental approach. It covers news, comments on new developments and initiatives, and offers opinions and advice.
InfoWorld’s “Sustainable IT” page ( tracks trends toward a greener, more energy efficient IT.
Greener Computing ( is a resource for environmentally friendly computers.
The Green Wombat blog ( focuses on the environment and technology and covers energy efficiency, green computing, carbon credits, and other areas.
The Data Center Knowledge newsletter ( presents news and analysis about data centers, managed hosting, and disaster recovery.
InfoWorld’s Green Tech newsletter (subscribe at presents how businesses are examining how they use their resources and exploring ways to save energy, materials, and money with green IT.
GreenBiz ( is the leading information resource on how to align environmental responsibility with business success.
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26. Greening: A Necessity, Not an Option
Businesses must develop a positive attitude toward addressing environmental concerns and adopt forward-looking, green-friendly policies and practices.
Greening IT is, and will continue to be, a necessity, not an option.
The challenges are immense; however, some of the recent developments indicate that the IT industry has the will and conviction to tackle the environmental issues head-on.
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27. Gaining a Green Image
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28. Green IT is socially responsible IT.
Greening IT is your social responsibility.
Greening IT is corporate social responsibility
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