Earth Day - Cutting carbon can be profitable!
There are profitable approaches that save money and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, 60-70% of emissions are energy related i.e. fuel for transportation, heating and power generation.
Most companies are focused in several areas:
1) Improving their infrastructure (buildings, data centers, factories, plants, offices)
2) Improving their supply chains (raw materials, product design, suppliers, transportation)
3) Optimizing finished goods and appliances they use (machinery, auto's, TV's, PC's, Printers).
There is opportunity in the office. Many enterprises have work from home employee programs, carpool programs, and encourage fuel efficient vehicles. In some industries, 30-50% of their employees work from home which reduces office space, requiring less energy for heating, cooling, lighting.
IT continues to adopt green principals and look to technologies within the data center and across the enterprise to reduce cost, reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Forrester states that the number of enterprises adopting green IT practiced jumped from 25% to 38% in 2007. Forrester's article, "Green IT Nudges Tech Adoption," March 10, 2008, provides some great examples and insight. Collaboration software & services, web conferencing, thin client technology, server virtualization, data center outsourcing, and document/print services outsourcing are the leading strategies that reduce carbon footprint. Outsourcing requires service providers to implement cost reduction as well as provide energy efficient solutions. For more details on Outsourcing and Services review the High tech and Communications blog.
Susy Mark
Industry Marketing Manager
High-Tech, Telecom and Media
Xerox Corporation