What does Green IT mean to you? If you look at the total sum equation does it add up.

Some things are pretty obvious and intuitive, make sure that you have power saving enabled and it is likely that you will use less power for the computer and the air conditioning etc.

Getting the airflow designed right in a data center means that you can save on power needed to cool it in the summer. Use that heat in the winter to heat the building - does the equation stack-up?

I personally think there is still a big conversation to be had on Green IT before we start to get what it really means to the IT industry and how it will impact the average person on the street. We need to sort that equation out, but first we must stip out the self serving motives from those whose business relies on the Green IT hype.

What are the quick wins that everyone can do themselves? lets find those and scale them up to test the equation - it's not rocket science!

Sir Nicholas Stern is a great man. I don't know how many of you can remember his name but I for one will never forget that he once wrote the eponymous report that triggered the whole hooha about environmental issues. It was at the beginning of October 2006. Sir Nicholas wrote this  report about our endangered planet and what we were doing to it and suddenly, we not only became aware of facts that were supposed not to exist before, but we got all dragged down into this big environmental maelstrom. Strange as it may seem, the bleak and distressing announcement that "there is a 50% chance that average global temperatures could rise by five degrees Celsius" Came as a blessing to me. For the first time in history, one was able to pronounce the "E" word without running the risk of being taken for a 'Commie'. Why was that? Was it because Sir Stern was Tony Blair's envoy? Not really. It probably helped but in fact I'm not even sure about that judging by the lack of trust Tony Blair and his successor had to suffer recently.

More seriously, Sir Nicholas Stern used to be the chief economist of the World Bank. That certainly lifts any suspicion about intentions he may have.

One could deem that Sir Stern was a wolf in sheep's clothing but also that he was more credible than the most competent of environmentalists. Here lies a true Marketing recipe in fact that when the message is worth conveying, it is more important to voice it through credible or influential people (so-called opinion leaders) than using the most competent of dedicated professionals. This job of convincing and changing public opinion is possibly the most important of all. Al Gore also understood that a wonky powerpoint presentation could land the message that hundreds of true experts before him had repetedly failed to convey.

A true Marketing lesson, delivered this time for the common benefit.

notes

• notes on the economic impact (Source: the BBC, Stern review at a glance)
  • "extreme weather could reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 1%
  • a two to three degrees Celsius rise in temperatures could reduce global economic output by 3%
  • If temperatures rise by five degrees Celsius, up to 10% of global output could be lost. The poorest countries would lose more than 10% of their output
  • In the worst case scenario global consumption per head would fall 20%
  • To stabilise at manageable levels, emissions would need to stabilise in the next 20 years and fall between 1% and 3% after that. This would cost 1% of GDP"

• A recent article on this subject by AFP, the French equivalent to Reuters:
  • http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZ2JTeYw3AxrfoDmrSZuPb0RUprw
• Story from BBC NEWS:
  • http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6098362.stm

Hola

En esta edición de Byte Me podrán enterarse de cuándo y quienes tendrán acceso al Windows 7 Alpha, porque DELL esta cambiando la tecnología de sus monitores, cual es la recomendación del servicio de disco duro virtual, cuales son los carros eléctricos de Chrysler, cuales son los 10 accesorios mas frecuentes para una Netbook, novedades de Halo 3, tips para mejorar tus habilidades como IT, porque “I´m a PC”, y más.

AUDIO

[audio http://ferglo.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/byte-me-sep25-2008.mp3]

Descarga el Programa

Links

• Innovation Tour08 "Completa el Codigo"
• Newsletter TechNet Flash (Septiembre)
• I´m a PC
• E-Book gratuito de SQL Server 2008
• Halo 3 (Trailer)

Programas Anteriores.

• Byte Me (Sep 18 2008)
• Byte Me (Sep 11 2008)
• Byte Me (Sep 05 2008)

Saludos

Ferglo

This might seem like a staggering amount of money for a company with two games in development but none published yet. It's trading on the name of its founder, Jon Van Caneghem, of Might and Magic fame. But it's not that much money if you realize that games are now being made on movie-sized budgets, and MMOGs are exceptionally expensive to develop.

Dan Hunter had an interesting piece on the Terra Nova blog last year regarding the financials of MMOG development, based off an Interplay prospectus for an MMOG based on Fallout. That cited a cost of $75m, including a launch budget of $30m, which presumably includes marketing, manufacturing, and server deployment.

MMOGs are not efficient beasts, and by their nature, they are also prone to flash crowds and highly variable capacity needs. Most scale in a highly unwieldy manner, compounding the basic inefficient utilization of computing capacity. Utility computing infrastructure has huge potential to reduce the overbuy of capacity, but colocation on their own hardware is nigh-universally the way that such companies deploy their games.

Nicholas Carr estimated back in 2006 that an avatar in Second Life has a carbon footprint equivalent to a Brazilian. Last year, I heard, from a source I'd consider to be pretty authoritative, that an avatar in Second Life actually has a carbon footprint larger than its typical real-person (usually an affluent American).

This is why Internet data center providers drool at MMOG companies.

(by Stewart Baines) A green baseline is critical if IT leaders want to transform their IT estate, reckons analyst Forrester. Its new report, "Is Green IT Your Emperor with No Clothes?" argues that what you can't control you can't measure. In other words, if you don't know how much power a PC consumes, or what the cooling costs are for your data centre, you will struggle to create a strategic plan to reduce the footprint of either.

• read more at the Orange Business Value & ICT blog [http://www.blogs.orange-business.com/live/]

Greenpeace hat die neue neunte Rangliste "Greener Electronics FSE Ranking" für Grüne Elektronik veröffentlicht. Darin macht der Hersteller Fujitsu Siemens Computers einen großen Sprung nach vorn - vom 15. Platz beim achten Ranking auf den dritten Platz beim neunten - mit einem Scorewert von 5.5 von 10 maximal möglichen Punkten. Dieses verbesserte Ranking zeigt das verstärkte Umweltbewußtseins von Fujitsu Siemens Computers. (Quelle ) Gerade mit der Produktpolitik und den verwendeten - respektive nichtverwendeten - Inhaltsstoffen kann man punkten. In den letzten Wochen und Monaten ist man auch mit Nachrichten, wie dem ersten 0-Watt-Monitor und den erhaltenen Green IT Preisen in der Öffentlichkeit vertreten gewesen.

Wir bei SIGMA Chemnitz GmbH freuen uns, die Lösungen dieses leistungsfähigen Partrners anbieten zu können. Wenn Sie mehr über das Leistungsspektrum erfahren möchten, senden Sie uns doch einfach eine E-Mail oder rufen uns unter +49 (0)371 2371-100 an.

Bild: Rhys Jones Photography, veröffentlicht unter der Creative Commons Lizenz Namensnennung

-

Oberndorf. Die Harlander Vertriebs-GmbH & Co. KG, Anbieter für gebrauchte IT-Hardware, hat auf dem Dach einer Lagerhalle eine über 550 qm große Photovoltaikanlage errichtet. Sie kann im Jahr 50.000 kWh produzieren und vermeidet damit knapp 45 t Kohlendioxid. Das Projekt wurde unter Leitung der PVStrom Energy Systems GmbH Co. KG größtenteils durch regionale Firmen realisiert. |rmi|

By far the largest trend in technology venture capital over the last two years has been the extraordinary shift in attention from traditional areas of focus like security, telecom and semiconductors into the area known as “cleantech” or “greentech”. This has resulted from both the decline in some traditional sectors as well as from increasing awareness that there are real problems to be solved around energy consumption and production, and that they are the types of problems that might be addressed by high-growth technology companies (and hence the purview of venture capital).

I think it’s safe to say that all VCs have at least noticed this transition, but there have been a number of different approaches to the new opportunities proposed by cleantech. To borrow analogy from poker, here are a few ways firms have chosen to play the clean technology hand:

1.    “All in” – Some firms have essentially pushed in all (or virtually all) of their resources, betting that cleantech will replace traditional IT sectors. These firms have either repurposed their existing IT investors to focus on cleantech subsectors or they have hired additional personnel: materials scientists, chemists and others with energy sector expertise. Some of have raised new funds specifically to address cleantech while others invest out of their primary funds.

2.    “Fold” – Other firms take the view that their value-add as investors would be compromised by an out-of-scope shift of focus to the energy sector given the disparity in underlying technologies (biofuels, thin-films, photovoltaics, etc…), and so they continue to look for opportunities in sectors where the investment team has expertise and contacts in traditional IT areas.

3.     “Smooth call” – The third approach is to view the energy sector as a vertical market that is partially addressable by information technologies. This view holds that the economic, business and environmental problems being solved by cleantech companies are too large for investors to ignore, but that certain areas of clean technology are not a fit for the relatively small funds raised by venture capitalists. The play here is to map these new opportunities to the current VC evaluation process – size of problem, quality of team and appropriateness of technical solution to that problem. The additional layer here is the evaluation of technologies outside of software, networking, semi-conductors, etc… that have comprised IT investing for the last few decades.

We here at RRE pursue this third approach, selectively deploying our capital toward “green IT” companies that are solving serious energy sector and environmental problems using technology and business model innovations in ways that we’ve valued since long before the cleantech movement began in earnest. Today we have several investments that can be described as “green” investments: Recyclebank, which is building an infrastructure to enable incentivized consumer recycling, Tendril, whose software powers smart meters that enable consumers to manage their energy use, and Ember, whose chips and suite of products enable the sensors and devices that will power the awareness and reduction of energy use by consumers and businesses. We have a couple of others in the hopper, too, but this isn’t the place to announce them.

In each case, we have invested in a business we understand (software, semiconductors and technology-enabled networks), but which seeks to solve a green problem. We are not the right investor for capital-intensive project finance, and are unlikely to get involved in those types of businesses. We probably couldn’t tell you which type of algae can convert waste into oxygen faster than another and don’t want to try. But just as the mainframe computer solved large problems for enterprises, and personal computers solved large problems for consumers and small business, and the way the internet solved problems for everyone, we think technology can effectively address a lot of the problems associated with energy use and efficiency. And we will continue to aggressively pursue great companies solving these critical problems. We think that venture-backed startups can be as important in the green sector as they have been in other IT areas, but we’ll be selective about which hands we’re willing to play.

Casey Harrell von Greenpeace gratuliert dem Unternehmen zu der neuen grüneren Produktlinie. Aber er weist auch darauf hin, dass Apple zu mehr in der Lage sei und in der umweltfreundlicher werdenden Elektronikindustrie eine führende Rolle einnehmen könnte. "Wir hoffen, dass dies nur eine Vorschau auf das ist, was noch kommen wird, und dass wir bei zukünftigen Produktankündigungen vom iPhone bis zum Mac mehr davon sehen werden", erklärt Harrell.

Die Umweltschutzorganisation betont zudem, dass es offensichtlich für Hersteller von Unterhaltungselektronik keinen Grund gibt, beim Bau von Geräten toxische Substanzen einzusetzen. Das jüngste Beispiel von Apple zeige, dass es auch ohne diese kritischen Stoffe möglich ist, Produkte zu fertigen, die zudem für den Verbraucher erschwinglich sind.

Quelle: Global Press/Yahoo

(Carsten Görs, EBPP.de) Herr Laube, Sie gelten als einer der Pioniere für elektronische Rechnungen in Europa. Warum haben Sie TietoEnator verlassen und wieder die Herausforderung gesucht, ein eigenes Unternehmen in diesem Bereich aufzubauen?

(Marcus Laube) Als ich 1999 mit der Firma Seals mein erstes Unternehmen für elektronische Rechnungen gegründet habe, waren wir der erste Consolidator für elektronischen Rechnungsaustausch in Europa. Damals war der Markt noch in den Kinderschuhen und wir haben eine Menge Aufbauarbeit geleistet. Nach langen Jahren der Entwicklung hat sich der Markt für elektronische Rechnungen etabliert und wächst immer schneller weiter. Meine Erfahrungen und Vorstellungen wollte ich daher in einem eigenen Unternehmen umsetzen.

(Carsten Görs, EBPP.de) Wie grenzen Sie das Angebot von crossinx in der bestehenden Dienstleister-Landschaft ab?

(Marcus Laube) crossinx fokussiert sich ausschließlich auf das Thema elektronische Rechnungen und die Financial Supply Chain. Im Gegensatz zu Großunternehmen vermeiden wir damit, dass diese Services als Randaktivität irgendwann nicht mehr angeboten werden. Wir konzentrieren uns vollständig auf die Weiterentwicklung dieser Services.

Darüber hinaus muss ein Service Provider seine Kunden dabei unterstützen können, Geschäftspartner jeder Größenordnung an den Service anzubinden. Das ist ein entscheidender Aspekt des elektronischen Rechnungsaustauschs. Großunternehmen die ihre Prozesse auf die Abwicklung von Großprojekten ausgelegt haben, haben dadurch eher Schwierigkeiten dem kleinen Bäcker um die Ecke den Service kosteneffizient anzubieten.
Schlussendlich wollen wir auch dem viel zitierten Thema „Green IT“ Rechnung tragen. Wir unterstützen die Initiative „Plant-for-the-Planet“ im Rahmen der 1 Milliarde Bäume Kampagne der Vereinten Nationen mit 1 Cent pro elektronischer Rechnung. Damit kann schon mit 100 elektronischen Rechnungen über crossinx ein neuer Baum gepflanzt werden.    

(Carsten Görs, EBPP.de) Warum sind Sie davon überzeugt, dass crossinx sich erfolgreich am Markt etablieren wird?

(Marcus Laube) Das haben wir bereits! Mit der Erfahrung unserer Mitarbeiter, die alle schon sehr lange im Bereich elektronischer Rechnungen aktiv sind und früher bei TietoEnator Projekte umgesetzt haben, haben wir einen Service entwickelt, der bereits aktiv von vielen Kunden genutzt wird. Viele unserer ehemaligen Kunden, wie z.B. Nestlé und Enercon nutzen daher jetzt den crossinx Service. Aber auch neue Kunden wie Bayer Business Services nutzen crossinx für den elektronischen Rechnungsaustausch.

Gemeinsam mit unseren Partnern Xerox, Trustweaver und Bonpago können wir unseren Kunden ein Portfolio an Services anbieten, das es auch ermöglicht Papierrechnungen abzuwickeln, einen weltweit steuerrechtlich geprüften Service anzubieten und auch bei der Prozessberatung zu unterstützen.

Schließlich unterstützt uns auch unser Beirat aktiv, der unter anderem aus renommierten Persönlichkeiten wie Herrn Rosenfeld, Finanzvorstand der Dresdner Bank und Herrn Müller, Finanzvorstand von Tchibo besteht.

(Carsten Görs, EBPP.de) Für welche Kunden ist das Angebot von crossinx besonders interessant?

(Marcus Laube) Unseren Kunden bieten wir ein Netzwerk für den elektronischen Rechnungsaustausch und dokumentenbasierte Prozesse zwischen Geschäftspartnern. Insbesondere ermöglichen wir die weltweite Nutzung dieses Netzwerks. Damit entsprechen wir den Anforderungen multinationaler Unternehmen, die momentan besonders intensiv derartige Lösungen einsetzen, den Service steuerkonform auf der ganzen Welt einsetzen zu können und die jeweils gültigen lokalen Anforderungen abzudecken. Dabei verbinden wir lokale „compliance“ mit dem Einsatz weltweit einheitlicher Finanzprozesse. Auch mittelständische Unternehmen interessieren sich immer stärker für die Möglichkeiten einer internationalen Umsetzung, da auch hier die Kunden- und Lieferantenstruktur inzwischen sehr international ist.

(Carsten Görs, EBPP.de)  Herr Laube, über die Jahre ist viel zur Marktentwicklung im Bereich eInvoicing und Finance Automation orakelt worden. Was verrät Ihnen der Blick in die Glaskugel zur Zukunft des europäischen Marktes heute?

(Marcus Laube) Die positive Entwicklung der jüngsten Vergangenheit wird weiter an Dynamik gewinnen. Das erkennt man auch daran, dass immer mehr staatliche Stellen und die EU den Einsatz von eInvoicing fördern und fordern. Dadurch wird sich in Europa auch das heute noch bestehende Nord-Süd Gefälle nivellieren. Süd- und Osteuropa zeichnen sich aktuell durch hohe Wachstumsraten in diesem Bereich aus. Auch werden immer mehr kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen die Vorteile elektronischer Rechnungen nutzen wollen. Dieses generelle Marktwachstum wird einhergehen mit einer Konsolidierung der Anbieter Landschaft. In einigen Jahren sehe ich hier eine vergleichbare Entwicklung wie in der Telekommunikation, d.h. es wird eine handvoll internationaler Anbieter und einige Nischenanbieter geben. Wir werden versuchen, diesen Prozess aktiv mitzugestalten.

(Carsten Görs, EBPP.de)  Herr Laube, vielen Dank für das Gespräch!

(Marcus Laube) Gern, wir sehen uns Ende September auf dem EXPP-Kongress.

The author suggests that Goverments should mandate the use of workflow for these initiatives and identifies these potential benefits:

• Reduced paper use
• Collaborating and efficiency gains (by improving processes)
• Carbon footprint reduction

I agree that there is great potential in automation for these type of initiatives but as a pragmatist I would suggest that organisations do not always fully understand how and when to address automation and the the Green IT agenda to ensure quantifiable business benefits.

I foresee that for the immediate future, organisations will continue to be very tactical in the way they implement process automation (Green BPM). This is largely due to the amorphous and pervasive nature of the business process in a complex organisational structure.

In my experience, workflow normally gets implemented based on an immediate tactical business pain that needs to be resolved and therefore can deliver immediate and tangible business value (ROI). Typical examples of initiatives can include cost reduction, increased efficiencies, regulatory compliance etc. These are well understood and therefore can be quantified.

I think organisations are still getting to grips with what ‘Green IT’ is and therefore making a tangible business case for Green BPM automation in this context is not yet a priority, but may become more common place in future.

Mandating automation is a way of introducing it but I anticipate organisations will be asking:

• What is in it for us?
• Where is the value?
• How do we manage the behavioural and organisational change?

Does anybody have experiences on where BPM is being adopted in this context? I would be interested to hear about some case studies, requirements and to understand how a business case was/can be defined for any related Green IT automation initiatives.

Postscript - added 16 September 2008:

An interesting 'organic' (Straus Family Creamery) though non IT example of how green process benfits can contribute to the bottom line savings is described in the post from Gartner. It explains how general process improvements can contribute to how an organisation an increase efficiencies while not increasing its costs or carbon foot print.

My search continues.....

Information technology's most important contribution to a stabil development is how we use it to compute, model and communicate about people's, enterprises' and the society's environment, social and economic conditions. It's all about how we use IT to support our strategies and initiatives in order to achieve a viable future.

Environmental, social and economical stable development
The biggest challenge is that it takes an environmental, social and economical viable development - and that all at the same time. This comprises very complex relations that all depend on each other e.g. when a huge amount of resources are used to fight the green house effect, there will be less resources to combat e.g. poverty in the developing countries. Is a country poor there are no resources for resolving environmental issues. The rise the oil price also rises the interest in finding oil in more difficult places. Furthermore, things change quickly today, what was current today, might not be it tomorrow.

Viable decisions require it
A sound development is about to make sure, that our future generations are able to live on a planet where its worth while living in. The choices we make today are mostly political and the effect of that will probably take a long time. It can take about 100 years only to see the effect of our climatic and environmental initiatives.

Nevertheless vi have the responsibility to evaluate those effects. Thats whats the aim of information technology. Its used o model complex relations and situations, to visualize econimical, environmental and social effects. IT should be used to communicate complex information to decision makers in order to give them a better overview about complex issues and help them make better desicions.

That's why green IT is not only about saving power consumation but also about to use IT to find solutions to those challenges that involve a stable development.

So if nothing else in today's meeting, I would really like to get one point on the agenda.

1. Workflow & Collaboration Solutions are good for the environment - Mandate their Use in Government

Why?

First, consider the reduction of paper use... That is good for our forests, and reducing the need to recycle paper (energy use etc)

Second, consider the efficiencies of human activity. This leads to more efficient use of computing and operational resources (reducing power consumption, and fuel costs for transporting paper and people from office to office)

Third, ancillary collaborative technologies that support workflow (like Instant Messaging, teleconferencing, document web-stores and team collaboration spaces) all help reduce our carbon footprint (Fuel & energy cost reduction, reduction of paper use & storage)

It would also be a great benefit to the IT Industry if Government Agencies mandated a "Green" move to workflow and online eForm solutions.

I am constantly frustrated by the need for a paper based service delivered by our Public Sector agencies, some 20 odd years after workflow technologies first came into existance.

There are no obstacles, legislative, privacy, or security that prevent moves to workflow solutions today (certainly not in any juristictions I reside in).

So this is my Call to Arms...

"Governments, Mandate a Green move by your Agencies to Workflow and Collaborative Services - No More Paper"

Why not feel free to pass the message on to any Government sponsored "Green Initiatives" you may be aware of in your part of the World.

As a footnote... If anyone is aware of research that quantifies how green Workflow processes are, I would be very interested in being pointed in the right direction...

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
glenn.irvine@thelotusposition.net

Oltre al BeckEnd, altra parte interessante è la END user Experience visto che nella sala sono in mostra delle Desktop Appliance di Wyse, Samsung e ChipPc per dare dimostrazione delle performance della soluzione VDI di Citrix, XenDesktop.

GescaLab è la dimostrazione pratica di un Green Computing all'opera.

Solitamente si tratta di incontri di mezza giornata con l'occasione di pranzare poi insieme nelle campagne formellesi.

Chiunque fosse interessato può mandare una richiesta al mio indirizzo massimiliano.caviglia@gesca.it

Vi saluto e Go Green!

Massimiliano Caviglia
Green IT Consultant 

Ein Unternehmen ist nur dann dauerhaft im Wettbewerb erfolgreich, wenn es der Konkurrenz einen Schritt voraus ist. Innovationen in der IT eines Unternehmens sind dafür eine immer wichtiger werdende Vorraussetzung.
Auf der IT FUTURE erfahren Sie, wie Sie bereits heute die Weichen für eine erfolgreiche IT-Zukunft stellen. In interessanten Vorträgen zu den Themen Green IT, Dynamic Data Center, Mobility und Service erhalten Sie wichtige Anregungen und Informationen, um die IT in Ihrem zukunftssicher zu gestalten.

Weitere Informationen finden Sie hier

Wenn Sie Interesse für einen Besuch bei diesem wichtigen Event bspw. am 30. September in Berlin haben, dann steht Ihnen die SIGMA Chemnitz GmbH gern telefonisch unter +49 (0)371 2371-302 oder per E-Mail zur Verfügung.

TechCrunch has an article on Greenseng, the green search engine.  Apparently, Greenseng purchases carbon credits to offset the power consumed by it's servers and users computers.  From TechCrunch:

We’ve seen a few sites attempt to help turn the web green, but most of them have been little more than gimmicks. Blackle purports to conserve energy by offering a “black” version of Google, which it says uses less energy than the engine’s standard white. But Google has gone on to say that black may actually increase the amount of energy consumed by visitors (of course, this didn’t stop Google Israel from turning its site black in honor of Earth Hour).

Today, Y Combinator startup CO2Stats has launched a search engine that aspires to be truly green. Greenseng (sounds like Ginseng) is a standard search engine, pulling results from Google’s Custom Search to produce results. But instead of relying on a dubious method of energy conservation, CO2Stats measures the amount of energy used by its servers and the computers of its users and purchases renewable energy certificates (similar to carbon credits) to offset the environmental toll.

Read on...

Induktionskochfelder, die merken, wenn kein Topf auf ihnen steht. Backöfen, die wissen, wann der Braten gar ist. Waschmaschinen im stylischen Look, so dass man sie gut und gerne auch als Designer-Stück ins Wohnzimmer hätte stellen können. Kühlschränke so groß wie Schlafzimmerschränke, die alles können und für jede Art von Gemüse das richtige Fach haben.

Und scheinbar machen sich viele vertretenen Aussteller der IFA Sorgen um die Umwelt: Kein namhafter Hersteller, der nicht irgendwo ein Öko-Siegel vorstellt, mit dem Stromverbrauch und der Recyclingfähigkeit seiner Geräte kämpft und voll auf "Grün" abfährt.

Ein paar Bilder vom heutigen Besuch gibt es hier.

És la primera vegada que es concedeix l'etiqueta ecològica de la Unió Europea a ordinadors personals i per tant Diode és la primera i, de moment, única empresa a Europa que pot usar aquesta etiqueta en els seus equips.

L'etiqueta ecològica europea és una iniciativa per fomentar l'ús de productes respectuosos amb el medi ambient i amb un reduït impacte ambiental. Diode sempre ha apostat per respectar criteris com estalvi energètic, prolongació de la vida útil, soroll, recuperació i reciclat o informació i manera d'ocupació. L'obtenció de l'etiqueta ecològica marca una fita important i constituïx un al·licient més per reafirmar el compromís de Diode en la qualitat dels seus productes i el respecte cap al medi ambient.

Tot això converteix a Visa Computers en la millor opció disponible per als usuaris que valoren la qualitat i la seguretat de les dades i en l'única opció per a tots aquells als quals preocupa el medi ambient i el creixement sostenible.

Més informació: European Union Eco-label

Mit jeder Suchanfrage werden 0.1 m² Regenwald gerettet.

forestle.org

So how does this tie into SharePoint? SharePoint is a perfect example of a technology which will reduce a companies carbon footprint, can help build awareness and reduce power costs.

That said let's dig down into how it can help.

Microsoft has promoted some ways in which SharePoint helps in this article (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102618771033.aspx) which I will now elaborate on and add a few of my own:

1. Save a Forest by Reducing Paper Printing, and Paper Based Work

   This seems obvious and is an immediate benefit of SharePoint Server. Having an online sharing and collaborative space immediately reduces the need to print documents. You get all the benefits of SharePoint (versioning, backed up information, alerting) while reducing cost.Let's take it one step further though, reducing paper also reduces other related areas of environmental impact as well a few of these are listed below:

• Reduces number of Paperclips, Pens, Organizers, File Cabinets, and Other Storage Solutions.

• Reducing the number of supplies also reduces the amount of packaging for all of those different supplies (and most packaging are environmentally unfriendly).

• Reduces the number of Printers. This also reduces the amount of power consumed by these printers, reduces the cost to the environment on disposal of these printers, and reduces the cost of ink.

• Reduces GARBAGE and recycling. Many companies still have loads of paper in garbage cans at the end of the day, and in many places paper recycling has it's own cost (think of the power it takes to power a recycling plant etc). By reducing paper again, you improve all of these other areas and reduce costs in many organizations besides your own! :)

2. Save Energy

   SharePoint streamlines all sorts of business processes. It is designed to help users become more efficient and to save people time and energy. With people sharing, collaborating and using technology to provide better ways of doing work it reduces the amount of time it takes for people to get their work done.The easiest way to look at this is by thinking of the supporting resources for a person working. When I work I have to have my computer on, my phone on, the lights on, the air conditioning or heating on (I know im pampered), the coffee machine on (definatly a must have) and so on and so forth. If I can get my tasks and work done faster I reduce the amount of time all of these associated power consumers need to remain on.

3. Reduce Waste

   Out of the box SharePoint includes a plethora of services and loads of functionality. A few examples of these are: document management, records management, search, document libraries, email-enabled lists, dashboards, KPIs, surveys, calendars, discussions, and forms. The reality is that the number of ways in which SharePoint can be used is virtually limitless.This reduces unnecessary hardware, since many systems provide parts of what SharePoint can provide you can reduce the number of seperate systems used in your business and begin centralizing the services they provide in one system; SharePoint 2007. The reason SharePoint is so good at this isn't just because of the services it provides but also because of how it integrates well with other business systems such as exchange and the microsoft stack. All of these other services ALSO help reduce carbon footprinting in some way.

   SharePoint is also a server technology and as such as designed to help reduce the need for powerful desktop or interfacing computers. This can reduce the cost of having to throw out old hardware since you can reuse it.

4. Reduce Air Pollution

   Connecting people from many locations to help share ideas, files, schedules, and increasing collaboration is one way in which SharePoint reduces air pollution. Add the other integrated and powerful Microsoft technologies such as Exchange, Office Communications Server, and Live Meeting and you really decrease the environmental cost of many locations interacting with one another.

   No need to have planes flying employees all over for face to face meets when you can use video conferencing, desktop sharing, and the ability to store all the meeting information in SharePoint. This allows you to have corporate travel for certain situations but can greatly reduce its impact and remove the 'need' for corporate travel. As Microsoft says: "Stop flying, wasting time, wasting money, and polluting the air."

5. Reduce Auto Emissions

   Work flex time is increasing. It has been for a number of years, and commuting (especially with rising gas prices) is becoming a major concern and cost to organizations. Commuting is even a bigger issue for cities with notoriously bad traffic (like the one I live right beside, Toronto). Telecommuting is the alternative to commuting and with SharePoint server, Exchange, Office Communications Server and Live meeting, you can have all the abilities of the office anywhere at any time.

Already have SharePoint? It doesn't just stop there you can always improve waste reduction and lots of people are finding great ways to do this. An example of another way you can use SharePoint to reduce environmental impact is by using supporting technologies such as Virtualization.

Virtual Geek wrote a great article on this: http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2008/07/virtualizing-sh.html

I hope this gets everyone thinking and helps many people save the world a little bit at a time,
Richard Harbridge