Green Strategy Tips for a Greener Office
January 13th, 2010 Posted in Green Living & NewsUK Cabinet Office Minister Angela Smith announced in September that the UK government has succeeded in the first phase of a program designed to decrease the carbon footprint of its overall functional operations. This move is centered on making more efficient use of computer and information technology systems. In the first year of the program, the government’s carbon footprint was cut by a 12,000 tonnes, roughly equivalent to the potential of taking 5000 cars off of the road.
The UK government was the first in the world to begin tackling the incredibly high financial and environmental costs stemming from the use of information and communication technology (ICT). Departments were given a checklist of steps that should be taken to create a greener office, which not only helps the environment but also saves the UK government millions.
These steps attempt to tackle issues ranging from the overuse of electricity in the workplace to overuse of printing paper. Some of the most effective strategies that have been implemented are indeed the most simple. UK government departments began to turn off all machines during the night (helping to cut down on idle electricity use); they have extended the life-cycle of their computers (by raising the replacement age from 3 years to 5); and they are reusing as much IT equipment as possible while increasing server efficiency. Perhaps the simplest of all procedures is the policy of setting printers to print double-sided as a default.
“Information technology is one of the hidden causes of climate change — worldwide, computers are responsible for the same amount of carbon emissions as the airline industry, but few people are taking action to improve the situation,” Smith said at the Greening Government ICT Conference in London. “A year ago the British government became the first in the world to set tough targets to tackle the huge environmental and financial costs of computer use and I’m delighted to see the real progress that has been made. In just 12 months we’ve saved enough carbon dioxide to fill almost 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”
The UK government has estimated that ICT is responsible for 20 percent of the overall carbon emissions of its offices, which comes out to about 460,000 tonnes of CO2 — the amount that is released by a million households over the span of a month.
To provide some quantification of the improvements, some statistics are available from various government departments:
- Department for International Development donated old equipment to charities in developing countries
- Crown Prosecution Service expects to save £2.35 million by replacing 9,500 computers and 2,500 printers every 5 years rather than every 3
- Home Office expects to save £2.4 million a year by removing unused IT equipment and improving efficiency
- Department for Work and Pensions will save 200 million sheets of paper a year by cutting down the number of printers in the department and changing the default setting to double-sided printing
Although these improvements are great first steps, Will Day, Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), maintains that further increases in efficiency are needed:
“While ICT can provide solutions to cut energy use and emissions, the SDC’s work on sustainable development in government found that government electricity use is still rising, and the proliferation of computers, laptops, chargers and the air conditioning of server rooms is likely to be behind much of this,” Day said. “So greening the government’s ICT is an urgent priority, which can save money as well as minimising energy use and emissions. After the successes of the first year of this programme, we look forward to seeing levels of ambitions raised further, and the government working with departments and industry to explore and invest in far-reaching green ICT solutions.”
