Green Channel

In another sign of a tight economy, even those that have the money are getting creative with their IT resources in order to find a little financial wiggle room.

D-Link is launching a recycling program for products returned under warranty.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been targeted by Greenpeace in India for not offering a service there for recovering used equipment from consumers.

Breaking rocks is one thing, but breaking monitors is a potential health hazard for US federal prisoners and prison employees, according to a US government review that faulted safety practices at one correctional facility where electronics equipment is recycled.

ASX-listed UXC (ASX: UXC) subsidiary, Integ, has rolled out its first green initiative tackling e-waste.

Green has never been sexier. It's the new black, and it sells.

Efforts to develop a national e-waste management scheme continue to stir up debate within the industry about where responsibility lies.

Spurred by business needs as well as environmental concerns, green IT projects blossomed in datacenters and on desktops throughout the world in 2007.

Some channel players have already adopted green business practices and are now driving them into their customer environments.

Awareness of the impact IT has on the environment is growing rapidly but, as with all matters of public concern, government has a lead role to play in setting an example.

In April, the Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, announced the appointment of UK efficiency expert, Sir Peter Gershon, to lead an independent review of the Australian Government's use and management of ICT. The terms of reference of the review are far reaching and of critical importance to our local industry. However given that it is an initiative of the Minister of Finance, its major thrust is cost-effective investment with an emphasis on consolidation.

The prospect of disposing of old IT equipment -- PCs, servers, storage gear, and the like -- may very well fill your heart with dread. After all, you're putting a lot of faith in a third party that the machines will be thoroughly wiped of confidential information, resold for a fair price, and, when applicable, properly disassembled, recycled, and disposed of. If your partners' practices end up being sloppy -- or downright criminal -- you could find yourself in regulatory and PR hell as confidential data protected by HIPAA or SarBox ends up in the wrong hands or 500 of your PCs end up in a landfill or river somewhere.

Doing the right thing makes sense from a business point of view as well as from an environmental and corporate social responsibility perspective.