Analysis: Get Full Credit for Green Initiatives
When “green” is a done deal, look to savings to build a career-changing opportunity.
by Mitch Ratcliffe
The “green” decision has been made. There’s no strategic “green” question for companies, because the economy is well along in a shift from consuming resources to sustaining them. Telecommuting, virtualization, reducing the use of printing, lowering the cost of cooling a data center, reducing the volume of electricity consumed by a company – all these are obvious low-hanging green IT fruit, because they save money. The depth of the green movement is most easily understood in the fact that many green projects are not trumpeted for PR purposes, they simply save money for companies.
Nevertheless, IT Pros have a once-in-a-century opportunity to leap to the forefront of their companies’ efforts to change, because IT is the broadest path to sustainable business available to many companies. Green thinking is strategic for your career. It requires looking ahead at the consequences of IT decisions made today and articulating the results to financial peers and senior management. They are ready to recognize full-lifecycle savings, even if they are trained to look only at current spending.
GreenBiz.com outlines the many ways IT can “save the world,” but it is also important, as Microsoft’s Ric Merrifield writes in this edition of TechNet ON, to pick your targets intelligently rather than leaping to be green because the label is the popular thing to do. Focusing on the most efficient process requires assessing the impact of technology on your company’s bottom line, even when doing good for the planet.
And that is where the most direct benefits of green thinking can be a barrier to strategic discussion. Sure, we may have saved power and lowered capital costs by embracing cloud computing, but have we factored in the indirect savings – and asked for those savings to be counted by our financial peers? For example, if IT has reduced the number of computers on a rack, hasn’t it also reduced the cost of disposing of PCs at the end of life? What about reducing the use of toxic materials in PCs, does it lead to less sick time or long-term health consequences that a company pays for out of pocket?
Most PC OEMS will recycle old systems that contain lead, mercury and other toxic materials, but you’ll have to pay approximately $30 per unit for the service. Local city dumps often charge more for electronics disposal, as well. If you’re looking at the end-of-life for 100, 1,000 or 10,000 systems, this is real money that needs to be budgeted today. What if those fees are avoidable? Even in our buying decisions, IT Pros can point to future savings.
What if, by facilitating telecommuting, your company saves the life of one employee who might die in traffic? What if you reduce the company’s workplace injuries liabilities? For a couple hundred years, people have been packed into factories and office buildings because communication reached as far as a foreman or manager could be heard shouting. With information technology, shouting doesn’t get messages across; business intelligence and accountability make for much more effective motivation, no matter where employees work. The things we count, the way we think about work itself, are changing.
This edition of TechNet On explores the many dimensions of green IT and the simple fact that it saves money. We encourage you to join us in the forums, blogs and our TechNet Futures co-creation space to brainstorm future articles and webcasts about saving money by thinking sustainable IT.
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Mitch Ratcliffe, principal program manager of TechNet, is a veteran media builder and entrepreneur. Most recently, he cofounded BuzzLogic, a social media analytics and advertising company. He was an investor in, and advisor to, Match.com, Audible, ON24, Socialtext and many other technology leaders.