How does Green Computing help your business?

Green Computing has come out of multiple programs over the past several years around protection of the environment, corporate social responsibility & sustainability. Sustainable development was defined by the Brundtland Commission as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Green Computing is driven by technological developments, as well as by implementation of tools and processes that make more efficient use of computers. Some of these are simply "common sense" things that we can do to reduce consumption. Reducing power consumption saves money as well as the load on our resources - is a key factor in the strategic sustainability "triple bottom line" of people, planet and profits.

As the need to capacity and processing power increases, so does the need to cool down these more powerful processors – and increasing consumption of energy. Major initiatives are underway to address this issue, and over the next few years we will see newer cooling technologies being introduced that will reduce our reliance on noisy and power hungry fans on PCs. The Economist recently ran an interesting article how this issue can impact us closer to home.

These and other technological advances are fundamentally changing the way we use computers so that Green Computing becomes a reality – supporting sustainable development. HP has a range of energy efficient solutions built around their ProLiant Servers, while Dell have developed programs and policies around energy efficient computing. Intel too have multiple initiatives underway around Green Computing – from specific targets to reduce CO2 emissions with energy efficient processors to building lead-free and halogen-free devices. Sun Microsystems have created solutions around their Sun Eco Innovations around the ‘greening’ or data centers.

Applications that are run over the web as services (Software-as-a-Service or SaaS) also contribute to Green Computing, if they are built to support the following key principles:

1. Provision of centralized processing and shared services. This reduces the need to infrastructure on the client side, and thus less decentralized processing power.
2. Building of green SaaS data centers. Centralized data centers mean that the innovative technologies, processes and policies can be effectively applied.
3. Greening of the software development process. Using ‘lean’ coding processes like Agile Software Development, means simpler coding processes, faster delivery and fewer energy consuming processor calls.

Here are some of the many blogs where you can find more information about how Green Computing is supporting sustainability efforts around the world.

• Business Green
• Environmental Leader
• Green PC
• Greenmachineshop