In the last few years, there has been an enormous movement towards Greet IT practice. The advancements in virtualization technologies, energy efficient datacenter design, and cloud based solutions have provided us with an excellent springboard to reduce the environmental impact of our business technologies. The downside to the increased adoption of these technologies is the inevitable increase in corporate e-waste.
Reducing energy consumption is an important first step in Green IT practice. Calculated hardware life cycle management is critical to minimizing the flow of e-waste into our nation’s landfills. A 2008 whitepaper by IDC , Beyond Power: IT’s Roadmap to Sustainable Computing ,stresses the idea of thinking about more than energy consumption when it comes to hardware utilization. Proper and secure disposal of hardware that is no longer of use to is important in minimizing e-waste. For Example, the old workstations you phased out because your marketing department switched to a new design software that is too resource intense, may no longer be of use to you, that doesn’t make it completely useless. There are schools and non profit organizations that are strained for cash as a result of budget cuts or just the overall expense of technology. Donations to organizations like this not only stem the flow of toxic e-waste, but also can provide opportunities for better education for underprivileged children, or more opportunities for adults attempting to re-enter the workforce.
That takes care of the Environmental and Social impact of Green IT practice. What about the financial aspect of it all? When procuring new hardware, purchasing from a perspective of longevity is the best option for your bottom line. Maximizing your hardware longevity and minimizing costly data loss are both excellent arguments for Green IT practice when making your point to those who hold the purse strings.
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