SUPPLIER AND TECHNOFIN®

Being green begins in the workplace

It seems like everyone is talking about the green data center, but there are also very simple ways to make the office greener. Often it’s just very basic mindsets that need to be changed.

In this article, you will read about the steps that can be taken to make the workplace greener – from the selection of devices and their settings to printer management and recycling. Companies with ‘green teams’ have seen excellent returns.

‘Green teams’ often consist of experienced external service providers and internal employees from the IT, facility management and personnel departments.

Choose environmentally-friendly devices An enormous amount of electricity can be saved by replacing energy-hungry hardware with new, more energy-efficient PCs. An old cathode ray tube monitor is a real power consumer compared to a modern energy-saving monitor.

When choosing new products, the environmental seal of approval of eco-labels like The Blue Angel and Nordic Swan give helpful references to environmentally-friendly produced hardware.

Disposal should also be a consideration, even before purchasing, since discarded electronics from Europe still end up in the landfills in Africa. Up to 98 percent of today’s hardware material can be recycled and/or reused, as the experience of Fujitsu Siemens Computers shows.

Companies thinking in an environmentally-friendly manner are thinking “reusable” instead of “disposable” and consider the entire lifecycle of their IT from the beginning.

Give up the cyber fish Without a doubt screensavers can be really sexy. However, these digital decorations are completely superfluous and unnecessarily consume energy.

To protect the environment, it’s a good idea to deactivate screensavers. Windows will then automatically change to power saving mode. In the power options window, you can set the number of minutes after which the monitor will go into sleep mode.

Ten to fifteen minutes are good time spans for this. Less time should be given to old, energy-hungry cathode ray tube monitors. Changing the brightness setting on the monitor also saves energy.

Simply by changing a few settings on its monitors, Fujitsu Siemens Computers reduced its electricity consumption by nearly 15 percent. Allow unused computers an office nap Powering unused clients can be very expensive; the operating system is primarily guilty of this.

Nevertheless, unused computers, printers and monitors are constantly running in many offices – sometimes even over night.

The reason for this: employees want to be able to start immediately in the morning instead of waiting for the computer to boot up, or they simply forget to turn off their machines at night.

Operating systems do however offer energy-saving functions, but only a few companies use them to save electricity.

This is primarily because Windows XP does not provide an option to centrally control power-saving functions, and the tools for remote-controlled energy management are not yet up to scratch.

Things are much easier with Windows Vista, but many companies will be using XP for a good number of years. Companies who do not want to struggle with power management themselves should consult with a service provider or independent third-party advisor.

Choose the correct sleep mode Various energy-saving methods can be selected in the BIOS setup of PCs – use and application will dictate the appropriate mode. In the so-called S1 mode, for example, only the processor is turned off, while the hard drive, graphic card and fan continue to run.

In this mode, only the energy-hungry processor is reined in. In the S3 mode, however, all components are turned off except for the internal memory, and the computer can be woken up from sleep very quickly.

This again is different from mode S4, which saves data on the hard drive and then turns off all components. In this mode, the computer needs more time to wake before it can be used again.

Save on paper and ink Even with the paperless office the environment is still at risk. Ironically, the increased use of IT and the digitalization of documents leads to companies printing and copying even more than before.

Every printed sheet of paper is a strain on the environment, since the production of paper causes CO2 emissions. One million sheets of paper produce eight tons of CO2.

Print lifecycle management can help protect the environment, while reducing costs for printer ink and materials.

A leading German bank cut its print jobs by 1.4 million in 18 months through print lifecycle management, while a Swiss company reduced its paper consumption by 19 million pages over five years - their contribution to the environment is a 150 million ton reduction of CO2 emissions.

Consumption-oriented billing models, such as ‘pay per page’, create transparency and promote discipline – employees think twice before printing documents.

In addition, the printer landscape is consolidated and modernized using multi-functional devices. The goal is to centrally monitor the device fleet and ensure that the proper functionality and proper performance level can be provided to the proper location.

This is best accomplished by using an IT solution that takes current print volume, as well as future demands, into account and provides printing security in terms of business-critical applications.

Reduce on-site support Companies seeking to make a contribution to the environment should drastically reduce on-site visits by IT support staff. With Intel vPro technology, remote monitoring, diagnosis and support are possible – even when devices are turned off or go to ‘blue screen’.

The use of a single, centrally-managed standard client is recommended. Many on-site visits can also be avoided via preventive service measures. Shortened access routes also help the environment.

Therefore, if companies with multiple locations seek to hire a service provider, they should ensure that this service provider has a close-knit network of service branches. Virtualized desktops The introduction of a virtual desktop infrastructure offers an additional means to reduce on-site visits.

With it, desktop operating systems are no longer run on site, but from a computing center, where they can also be repaired and maintained. The underlying technologies, however, are relatively new and require good software and hardware knowledge.

A professional who knows the hardware well should be responsible for the desktop virtualization, as well as management of the virtualized environment.

On the whole, making employees and IT departments more aware of Green IT issues will only bring success on a limited scale. There is an urgent need for real transparency with regards to all expenditure.

In many companies, power is just apportioned per head to the relevant cost centre, so is there any real incentive for employees to save more?

Also, devices like printers are apportioned to cost centres, but materials such as paper, toner and ink cartridges are supplied by the purchase department and often not charged to the cost centres.

Author: Bernd Wagner, Vice-President and Managing Director Services Germany, Fujitsu Siemens Computers Check list

- Take notice of environmental endorsements when purchasing new hardware
- Turn off screensavers
- Check monitor settings are as energy-efficient as possible
- Activate the operating system’s power-saving functions
- Set up central power management for clients
- Set up energy-saving modes in the BIOS
- Avoid unnecessary printing through printer management
- Use virtualization to improve utilization of PC resources
- Think about environmentally-friendly disposal of devices at the point of purchase
- Replace on-site client support with remote management
- Make clear the reasons for all expenditure

Entry Filed under: SUPPLIER AND TECHNOFIN®, Compliance, Socially Responsible Investment