My last post dealt with the merits of smarter, flexible working and how businesses need to define policies for remote working and WFH (working from home) before rolling out a scheme company-wide.  The use of IT to improve process efficiency is ingrained into our every thought and decision; we now need to consider environmental factors in the same breath as cost saving. 

Findings from a recent study by Oxford University show that flexible working and WFH is definitely one way to help cut our carbon footprint.  WFH means employees can dodge rush hour and traffic jams, and less commuting means less carbon.  Broadband, web and phone conferencing for homeworking and international virtual meetings are all technologies which can reduce the energy demands of the business.

Aside from flexible working, IT can employ a number of measures which can help the business become more environmentally friendly.

Workforces are growing ever-more dispersed and the physical office is being replaced by a virtual one.  This means that today’s documents are stored on servers rather than in filing cabinets.  Less paper might mean more trees but with computers, printers and servers running all day, technology is a major consumer of energy within businesses. 

IT leaders need to identify IT management or IT controllable practices that can help the business reduce power consumption.  For instance, in a global business it’s not reasonable to shut down all servers overnight, but it’s not unreasonable to set policies that require PCs, monitors and printers to be switched off (not just left on standby) when not in use, that office lights are controlled by timers or movement sensors, and that heat generated by computer equipment is used to offset the office heating bill.

Printing will be with us for a long time yet but we can more actively promote electronic data interchange for most commercial documents, saving on printing, postage and transport costs and their associated energy demands.

To find out more about how IT can go green, Computing is running a four part web seminar programme which introduces a seven-step plan to improving our green credentials.