Mapping the Green IT Landscape - Keynote Address at Clean Technology Alliance 2009 Conference

[Linda Barney]

Mapping the Green IT Landscape
Clean Technology Alliance 2009 Conference Keynote Address

By Linda Barney, Barney and Associates

The Clean Technology Alliance 2009 Conference, part of the Portland Innotech Conference, featured Chris Mines, Sr. VP of Forrester Research as the keynote speaker. The interactive presentation was done via live video with Mines addressing the audience from Boston, in keeping with the sustainability theme.

The move to green technology is gathering steam across the economy and is not a fad. Mines cited examples of growing green regulations, green thinking in consumer’s decision-making, and investment in sustainability. Even during the recession, leading companies are making investment in green commitments. Companies such as Bombardier, GE, Tesco, Japanese steelmakers, Walmart, and even Anheuser–Busch have implemented successful green programs.

What do green initiatives have to do with IT? In his presentation, Mines encouraged the IT industry to raise its sights to leverage Information Technology (IT) across the full spectrum of green business opportunities. Mines states that Forrester research indicates, “That there are new horizons on the green IT landscape. IT teams will find that there are multi-dimensional, complex issues in pursing a goal of ‘green IT’ but time and investments will have significant returns on investments in a leaner and greener IT infrastructure. IT should be a leader in large companies and a catalyst for green operations.”

Green for IT
Mines believes there are two phases in the green technology movement, the first is Green for IT where IT groups focus on making IT systems more environmentally friendly. It is a well documented fact that data centers use excessive amounts of energy—much of this energy is wasted. Mines encouraged IT teams to focus on energy savings in data centers but to also look for green energy savings on distributed IT across the entire company. Research done by Forrester shows that companies and IT groups are reducing energy usage and their carbon footprint by implementing thin client systems, managed print services, replacing old PCs with newer more energy efficient models, and moving to flat screen displays rather than old CRT monitors. On the software side, IT groups are using virtualization to reduce the number of servers and doing an audit of software running on servers to see if all of the software is being used and is needed. Corporate carbon management is growing in importance because companies will start having to track and report on carbon usage. IT can be a leader in this area by implementing software and methods to monitor carbon usage, report it, and reduce the carbon usage.

IT groups should encourage their company to measure energy usage with tools such as PC power management tools and energy software Dashboards that can track energy usage across the entire facility. Mines stressed that IT should not work in isolation on green technology issues, IT should work closely with Facilities Departments and groups involved with sustainability and energy reduction. In addition, companies must get Finance on board for budgeting for IT and Facilities for sharing cost and benefit of expenses in IT infrastructure.

IT for Green
There is an expanding role for IT to act as a leader and catalyst in the energy reduction and sustainability movement. Improving the energy efficiency and sustainability of computing operations is an important start, but there is a broader horizon coming into view that encompasses IT’s role in making business decision processes, strategy and infrastructure more sustainable. What is the goal of IT professionals in pursuing these broader goals? Which vendor solutions will make a difference? What kind of organizational structures and processes are companies using to put IT for Green into practice?

Mines encourages IT professionals to look at ways that they can help maintain sustainability outside of the IT Department by working on company-wide projects such as carbon management, or looking at energy associated with vendors in the supply chain. IT professionals can also become leaders in IT for Green by becoming involved in green public policy and infrastructure issues through involvement in SmartGrid, green city, climate change or other issues that improve sustainability within the public and private infrastructure on a larger scale.

Role of Green IT during an Economic Recession
Forrester did research to track the role of green IT during the current declining economy and lack of capital. In October, 2008, Forrester asked 1,000 companies “What impact does the worsening economic outlook have on your organization’s green IT initiative.” Research found that twice as many companies said they would move faster in buying into the green movement. The research indicated, “There is money to be saved in Total Cost of Ownership even though the upfront cost is more. Green IT is a way to implement additional cost savings.”

New Horizons on the Green IT Landscape
“Green is not going away. Green initiatives are becoming embedded in the way companies work—even in a recession. The challenges and strategies for green IT are becoming more complicated and more interesting. Even while companies work on greening the IT infrastructure, IT should be getting ready for IT for green 2.0. Start now to position your IT organization to be a leader in IT for green issues,” states Mines.

Christopher Mines Bio:
Keynote Speaker: Christopher Mines, Sr. VP focused on Green IT, Forrester Research

Chris works with strategists and marketers at global technology suppliers, illuminating enterprise requirements for more sustainable computing operations, and helping them design, market, and position hardware, software, and services to meet those enterprise requirements.

Since publishing seminal research on "The Greening of IT" in 2007, Chris has become one of the leading analysts of the trend toward more environmentally responsible computing.

Chris has been with Forrester for 12 years an analyst and research director. He led Forrester's overall US research organization from 2002 to 2006.

Earlier in his career, Chris was a strategy consultant, investment analyst, and systems programmer. He holds degrees from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the University of Pennsylvania.

Linda Barney is the founder and owner of Barney and Associates, a technical and marketing writing firm. Founded in 1990, Barney and Associates specializes in technical and scientific writing, web development, eLearning, demos, and training. Barney and Associates also provides a wide range of marketing writing services including creating media articles, white papers, data sheets, solution briefs, case studies, web content and reviewer’s guides. Contact Linda at [e-mail].