Diesel Guzzlers to Green Towers !!

The number of mobile users has increased exponentially from 400 million in 2008 to 2 billion in 2014 and so has the passive infrastructure(telecom towers) required to support this growth. The majority of this growth has been in the developing and underdeveloped nations and telecom towers have reached remote locations guaranteeing connectivity to areas that do not even have the basic infrastructure like constant electricity supply and roads in place. This positive development has occurred at the expense of the the environment. The energy source of such remote location towers has been diesel generators that not only consume a very valuable resource but also generate huge amounts of CO2. This is a perfect example of the imbalance between growth and environment.

With growing awareness and pressure from the customers, some of the passive infrastructure companies and telecom companies have realised the importance of going green not only for the sake of projecting it in their annual report but also cutting the operating cost. These companies have started minimizing the diesel consumption and installing hybrid solutions, a combination of solar, wind, batteries and DG. A perfect example can be seen in this videos:

The advantages of going green are multidimensional:

1. Decreases the carbon footprint of the companies - Better PR*
2. Decreases the operating cost of the companies  - Makes Business Sense**
3. Protects the business from fluctuating oil prices helping them concentrate on the core business - Decreased Risk

We need more and more companies to think on these lines and adopt sustainable ideas that not only make them a better global company but also helps the business grow from the financial perspective.

* Approx 70%-80% reduction in diesel Consumption

* *The number may vary from country to country but the cost of per unit electricity generated from hybrid solution is lower than that generated by diesel alone.

Detroit Renewable Power makes GM Eco-friendly !

General Motors (GM) is making progress toward its aggressive sustainability goals to use some 125 megawatts of renewable energy annually within its energy portfolio by 2020.

16 megawatts (12% of the goal) is being generated at one GM facility: the Hamtramck, Michigan. Piped steam from  waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, owned by Detroit Renewable Power (DRP), is being used to power heating and cooling systems in the GM plant as well as for some process operations. This energy, produced from renewable municipal solid waste (MSW), is helping GM achieve the goal and act sustainability ! 

To know more about this click here

Village declares Independence from darkness using SOLAR ENERGY !

Greenpeace, CEED (Centre for Environment and Energy Development) and BASIX (a livelihood promotional institute), took the challenge to revolutionize the lives of people in a small village in Bihar, Dharnai by bringing in electricity through Decentralized Renewable Energy System (DRES). 

Greenpeace along with other partners set-up micro-grids throughout the village using solar panels to generate electricity that is clean, efficient and and cost effective. The system of  solar micro-grids have been designed and installed based on the specific electricity needs of the area and provide electricity to over 450 households, 50 commercial establishments along with 60 streetlights, two schools, one health center and one Kisan Training Center. 

The solar micro-grid was set up with an initial capacity of 100 KW electricity generation to cater to the basic energy requirements of the village, and it can be further expanded to meet the advanced needs of the community if required. 

The grid has not only provided electricity but also added economic and social value to the lives of the people. The village has set an example for the entire country that energy self sufficiency is not a far fetched dream.

Solar powered Wine !

Green Wine !

After focusing on reducing its energy consumption for several years, Jordan Vineyard & Winery installed 1,932-panels generating enough power to offset the family-owned and operated winery’s utility bill by 99% and save nearly $4.9 million in electricity costs over the next 30 years. 

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Source- http://www.winebusiness.com/news

The next big Job - Printing Manager !

Managed Print Services!

Three questions that will make you a GREEN citizen

1. Is your organization interested in reducing its carbon footprint?
2. If YES, have you quantified the impact that printing has on the environment?
3.  Are you aware of potential energy savings by managing printing efficiently?

If you have the intention to be green but don’t know how to do all this, read the post!

What is printing?

Printing is not only about sending a file to the printer and collecting it from the printer, it includes the cost of managing and optimizing the input, output and the processes that support these printers. In a real life business environment it includes paper, printer, technical services, ink toner and power. If we add up the cost of all this it is about 15% of a company’s annual spending. Which means you are spending more and depleting more! 

So what is the solution?

MPS – Managed Print Services.

As per the Managed Print Services Association, Managed Print Services is the active management and optimization of document output devices and related business processes.

The definition is very broad, but the end result is easy to comprehend, it enables your organization to efficiently use the infrastructure, monitor and standardize printing management, and improve workflows as required by automating document management. From a sustainability point of view, which is why the post in on this blog, it helps organization reduce the carbon footprint of printing by reducing energy consumption and paper usage, and simplifying recycling and end-of-use disposal of devices and cartridges.

Managed Print Services has helped companies achieve:

• Cost reductions associated to printing system of up to 30% 
• Energy savings associated with printing system of 30% to 80%  
• Reductions in paper consumption by millions of pages for companies 
• Environmental friendly disposal of assets and recycling strategies for devices at end of       use
•  Easy, consistent, and responsible recycling of toner and ink cartridges with a trusted recycling partner 
• Decreases in their carbon footprint from printing 
• Efficiency and productivity improvements 
• Convert the slow manual paper based approval processes to electronic saving paper and time
• Increase the security of the documents by tools such as follow your print.

This implies that it is a win-win situation for everyone, on one hand the business saves money and optimizes its resources and on the other its reduces carbon foot print by consuming less power, paper and other supplies.

There are many companies that offer managed printing services some of the big names in the industry are Xerox, HP and Cannon. Have a look at the video below from Xerox to understand the service better. Keep reading the blog for more GREEN IT solutions!

Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find.

What is Green IT?

 As the name suggests, Green IT revolves around making the world green by paying attention to 3Es – Efficiency, Energy and Environment in the field of Information Technology. It is all about increasing efficiency, reducing energy consumption and saving the environment. We are surrounded by and use information technology every minute of our daily life, which gives us ample opportunity to be responsible citizen of the planet by doing small but impactful things that can save the planet.

Just for the statistics, data centers across the globe used 235.5 BkWh units of electricity in 2012, therefore a small increase in efficiency can save enough energy to light up many cities across the globe.

Why Should We Care?

We live, eat and sleep IT. IT is in our homes, schools, offices everywhere and anywhere we can think of. From manufacturing, using to disposing of IT resources, all of them involve the three E mentioned above. We use natural resource to manufacture them, energy to use them and then deplete environment by not properly disposing them. In the process of utilizing the technology most consumers and businesses waste resources, in the form of energy, paper, money and time. These resources can be invested to increase efficiency, reduce energy, save the environment and allow us to become green citizens. Therefore even if you are not a tree hugger, it makes good business sense to paint your IT environment and culture GREEN .

The planet has limited resources which are being consumed at a very fast pace, it’s time that we stop and think about what we can do using technology to save our home planet, fortunately, there are many simple steps we can take to accomplish this. It does not matter if you are a single consumer or  a small business, or  an IT beginner or an IT wizard each of us has the chance to contribute, make a change and save the planet !

To know these solutions and improve your Green IT knowledge keep reading our Blog !