Lets take a minute to examine some of the benefits your company can reap from implementing Green IT practices...
Green IT can significantly reduce energy costs
With the current cost of energy and the recent economic climate, reducing the use of energy is a no-brainer. By reducing energy consumption you not only reduce the overall carbon footprint of your business, you can save big bucks on your energy bills. Taking simple steps like enforcing a responsible power usage policy, or installing automatic mottion sensor detectors on the lights in your office can make a big dent in that electric bill.
Green IT can reduce operational costs and increasing efficiency
Keeping your budget in check is a major priority for any business today. With the cost of doing business getting higher every day, maintaining your bottom line sometimes seems like an impossible feat. Policies based around reducing these costs make a lot of sense. For example; Employees waste expensive printer ink and paper needlessly reprinting documents in full color. A good policy to enforce would be always print both sides, or color printing restrictions to customer facing documents only. Another idea would be to subscribe to an electronic fax service like efax , smartfax or fax.com to prevent needless printing of faxed documents. By saving valuable resources for when you really need them, you can prevent workload bottlenecks, time wasting trips to the fax and printers, you can increase your overall efficiency. Maybe that one extra call your sales rep made that day lands one extra sale. Perhaps the color printer had that last bit of blue ink needed to make that hard copy proof to your design customer. Its always the little things that make the biggest difference.
Focused Green IT strategies positively impact employee loyalty towards an employer with strong Corporate Social Responsibilities
This one is my personal favorite. The best way to increase productivity is to increase employee morale. If I'm disappointed or do not respect my employer, my work will suffer. It is easier to motivate someone who feels respected and feels that their job is worth doing.
Green IT initiatives can improve customer loyalty.
People appreciate doing business with companies that demonstrate a sincere environmental consciousness through action and not just words. Some of those old computers may no longer be of use to your staff, but there are a variety of non profit organizations that can use these machines in educational, administrative or other capacities.
