Green Channel

The 'Computers Off Australia' (COA) campaign and labeling initiative was launched nationwide in Sydney today, with the aim of encouraging organisations and individuals to implement power management practices on their home and office computers to reduce the carbon footprint of ICT.

Sony and Sony Ericsson have come out on top of the latest Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics, although most companies saw their scores drop due to a new ranking system based on wider criteria.

Sharp plans to partially power a new solar panel factory with energy generated from a solar installation on the plant's roof, it said Monday.

A study into "Green IT" within Australian and New Zealand organizations reveals that a majority have a strong mandate from the executive to reduce the environmental impact of IT but not that many are offering a budget for IT to achieve this.

Microsoft and several academics published two research papers on Thursday outlining how improved data analysis and new mathematical models can more accurately predict how climate change could affect the world's forests.

Jonathan Snyder's five-person team at Dreambuilder Investments isn't your typical IT organization. Or is it?

It is imperative that businesses quickly recognize the need for environmentally sound behaviors and good business practices to co-exist, Nortel President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski said today at FORTUNE's first-ever Brainstorm: GREEN Conference** in Pasadena, Calif.

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.

Rackspace provides datacentre facilities under a managed hosting scheme. It is building a new UK datacentre and has had a green aspect to its business for about a year and a half. How is that affecting its operations?

Broadly speaking, there are two main reasons for companies to go green. The first is to reduce energy costs, thereby saving the company money. As one IT executive put it to me recently, "Green computing is all about saving greenbacks."

Organisations are investing in green computers -- that is, machines that are energy efficient and built in an environmentally responsible manner -- at ever-increasing rates. Sometimes they pay a small premium to do this. Is it worth it? They seem to think so.

All datacentre products claiming to be green are not created equal. That's because metrics to determine how green equipment is usually are vendor-driven and measuring energy efficiency can be a chore for network architects.

The IT industry must smooth the transition path if CIOs are to stop thinking of green initiatives as an inconvenience.

I remember when I started in this industry with IBM, a key sales strategy was to create FUD -- Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt -- in the minds of our customers. The idea was that if we covered prospective customers with a thick layer of FUD, going with the 'big, safe' IBM would be an easy and logical decision. In those days 'no one ever got fired for buying IBM' was the subtle subtext in IT decision making.