CIOs have the power

Rory Green, product manager for industry standard servers at HP, believes "CIOs have the power to drive their IT organisations to green technologies."

Wolf Stinnes, Solutions Architect, Converged Real Estate, Dimension Data, agrees. "Of the executives, it is indeed the CIO that can make the biggest contribution."

According to Stinnes, green initiatives should be driven 10% on green emotion and 90% on ROI, but the current perception is that huge CAPEX is needed up front.

Both say this is not so, but remind that decisions made today could impact your business in the long term. "One must not forget is that the IT purchases you make today will be a part of your environment for the next three to five years or even longer," says Green.

Stinnes outlines some green practices that do not cost anything at all. "Large banks have saved millions in electricity bills by making sure screen savers are off, peripherals are switched off at the wall plug, or by switching to double-sided printing - there was no capital layout required, but it immediately raised awareness and employees are printing 60% fewer e-mails."

Stinnes outlines three key areas for a company to focus on: ICT, the built environment and employee behaviour and awareness.

"Technology is a key enabler, but cannot stand alone in making the company green," he says.

Green says major hardware and software innovations have been made recently, with no signs of slowing down. He also says companies should make a concerted effort to ensure they buy the technology that uses the lowest power possible, and that energy usage should be the deciding factor.

"The smart CIO will take [advantage of] new business pressures to get ahead of the game," says Stinnes.

Green and Stinnes will both be speaking at ITWeb's Green IT Summit 2008, on 12 August at The Forum in Bryanston.