| Does your business take green IT
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| | only cost around £200/year to offset.
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| seriously? Well it should, because
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| | As well as giving you more credibility in
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| ignoring climate change could cost you
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| | today's increasingly enviro-friendly
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| money and harm your credibility.
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| | world, taking a few hours to review your
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| There are now over 1.1 billion computers
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| | carbon footprint can lead to some
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| in operation worldwide, collectively
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| | worthwhile cost savings as well. A simple
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| producing about one billion tonnes of CO2
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| | example is turning off (or hibernating
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| through their electricity requirements.
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| | if, like me, you hate rebooting and
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| E-waste is serious headache too with
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| | getting back to where you were each
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| computers, mobile phones and electronic
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| | morning) your PC at night. A recent study
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| gadgets now accounting for 5% of the
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| | by Fujitsu estimated that the UK alone
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| world's garbage (
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| | wastes £123m on electricity powering PCs
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| But surely small IT companies don't need
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| | left on out-of-hours. See for general
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| to be worrying about that kind of thing?
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| | energy-efficiency tips.
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| Actually, they do - there are solid
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| | Virtually greener
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| reasons why all businesses should be
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| | Carbon offsetting is all good stuff, but
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| going greener, and not just because of
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| | when it comes to IT power consumption,
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| the do-gooder's warm fuzzy feelings to be
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| | prevention is better than cure. Demand
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| had! Over 70% of PCs will not be recycled
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| | for high-availability, centralised server
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| when disposed of over the next five
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| | resource is growing relentlessly, and
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| years, and globally we will dispose of
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| | high-density computing uses a lot of
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| 512 million. We are now legally obliged
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| | energy. Even a base-spec 1U rackmount
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| to dispose of PC equipment properly, and
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| | server will burn 100-200 Watts
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| that normally incurs charges. Thankfully
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| | continuously, and once you fill a few
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| there is a free and simple, if underused,
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| | racks and add in cooling requirements you
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| alternative; lots of people in the world
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| | are looking at a whopping electricity
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| are in dire need of our "outdated"
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| | bill! With energy prices doubling every
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| computers, so donate them to the likes of
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| | few years datacentres' power consumption
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| For safety, I would suggest you scrub
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| | is fast becoming a major issue for IT
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| your drives first (try
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| | business, and is now the main cost
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| dban.sourceforge.net). More regulation
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| | underlying server hosting.
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| info at
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| | The oddity from our perspective is that
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| Perhaps more importantly, consumers and
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| | the vast bulk of servers in our
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| businesses are increasingly taking note
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| | datacentres idle most of the time, with
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| of how the products and services they use
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| | perhaps 90% never getting close to full
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| impact the environment. Memset ( became
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| | capacity. While many applications are
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| the UK's first "carbon neutral" Web host
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| | best hosted on their own dedicated server
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| last Summer and that has definitely
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| | (better security, for example), few need
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| helped us win more business, which is
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| | the full resource of a modern multi-core,
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| also probably why so many other dedicated
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| | gigahertz machine. That is where
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| server hosts are following suit.
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| | virtualisation comes in; the latest
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| Carbon offsetting
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| | generation of virtual machines, using the
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| Things like travel, electricity usage and
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| | hardware-assisted virtualisation in new
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| product manufacture have a "carbon
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| | AMD and Intel's chips (eg. are
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| footprint"; the quantity of greenhouse
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| | operationally indistinguishable from a
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| gases directly or indirectly produced as
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| | physical server but use 5-20% of the
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| a result of those activities. Most
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| | electricity. The reduced power and
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| activities are impossible to make 100%
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| | hardware costs give you significant
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| green, but you can offset the effective
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| | savings while not costing anything you
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| carbon impact by investing in carbon
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| | actually needed in the first place, and
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| sequestration projects (eg. planting
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| | at the same time you are tackling climate
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| trees) or in greener power generation
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| | change.
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| facilities (eg. wind farms), thus
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| | It can be argued that all such measures
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| becoming "carbon neutral".
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| | are a dribble in the ocean, and some have
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| Organisations like the CarbonNeutral
| |
| | serious doubts about the efficacy of our
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| Company ( and the Carbon Trust ( can
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| | whole approach to climate change.
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| guide you through offsetting, and it is
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| | However, being more climate-friendly is
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| neither expensive nor difficult. For
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| | not difficult for most IT businesses and
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| example, an average small office with 10
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| | almost certainly helps, so can you really
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| staff might have equivalent emissions of
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| | afford to ignore the risks, or miss out
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| 20 tonnes CO2/year, which would probably
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| | on the benefits of going greener?
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