The eWEEK Guide to Green IT

Top Technology Executives Give Five Quick Steps to Green IT We asked some of the top technology executives to outline five steps to thinking green in business. If you have five steps you would like to submit, please e-mail them to

What about putting in the right technology to make it easier for employees to work from home and to collaborate more easily across locations to reduce carbon emissions from cars/planes, etc.? – Julie Rees, Editorial Services Specialist

Turn OFF computers, monitors and connected peripherals (personal scanners, non-networked printers) when you leave for the day, and turn OFF the power strips/surge suppressors into which they are plugged. – Jean Shepherd

Leverage technology like Wake on LAN to avoid the need to leave PCs on 24×7 to ensure proper patching. Having employees shut their computers off each evening can cut PC power consumption by more than two-thirds in many environments. – Jim Sa

If the U.S. work force could work from home just one day per week, there would be a 20 percent reduction in transportation energy costs right away. Consider the real costs of commute times, traffic, accidents and energy that can be reduced by IT organizat

1. As a customer, require all your vendors to deliver software and documentation electronically. Each CD manufactured and delivered is equivalent to about 1Kg of atmospheric CO2. And, as a bonus, electronic delivery eliminates sales tax in more than a do

1. Enable and promote telecommuting. One of the most green practices a company can promote is to decrease their employees travel to work and simultaneously decrease all the in-house resources needed to support their physical presence. 2. A

5. Prefer workgroup over individual peripherals. Printers, scanners and other peripherals can be deployed at a workgroup level with as much or more functionality than at an individual level. 6. De-duplicate devices. A user with a PDA, a mo

9. Set policy for the cleaning crew. In office buildings, the cleaning crew often deliberately leaves lights on throughout the building for several hours. 10. Consider computer-based telephony. For users who are comfortable with talking at

Thomas Russo is the chief technology officer at Akridge Real Estate Services in Washington, D.C. He is a CTO with boundless energy to talk to you about saving energy. His advice spans an area of interest that ranges beyond traditional IT areas, but expan

Use motion-sensor-controlled lighting on building automation systems. Remember the following areas and techniques. • stairwells • Daylight harvesting sensors that automatically adjust lighting to amount of daylight. Some st

Push building management to replace all incandescent bulbs with CFLs, LED lighting or just more efficient bulbs

Use variable speed drives on motors where possible. For example: • Escalators can use motion sensors rather than constant operation • Domestic water pumps can pump only the volume needed; not constantly at full speed

Design, Design, Design – whether retro-fitting or new design, energy efficiencies should be considered early • Design new buildings with no incandescent bulbs • Be part of the development and design teams. Help them find en

Monitor electrical savings to prove return on investment • Various software and hardware options are available to monitor the consumption of all utilities

James Whalen is the senior vice president and CIO of Boston Properties. He is widely recognized as one of the top technology executives in melding information technology, building systems and business processes into a comprehensive energy management syste

Virtualization allows you to dramatically cut the number of servers you need, while also investing in the latest efficiency servers, thereby eliminating legacy and inefficient servers

Set standards for power settings by enforcing policy level standards across all desktops, laptops and printers

If you are rebuilding or redesigning your data center, implement a design that reduces energy consumption and lessens heat output

Reduce paper output through imaging and implementing best practices on printer usage

Require proper recycling of older computers

Got five suggestions for a Green Information Technology world? Send them my way and, if selected, we’ll add them to the slide show with a credit in your name.

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