Client demands
Both commercial and retail clients are now beginning to expect their suppliers to demonstrate their ecological credentials. This may be in terms of product features or how the company operates. For example, standards such as ISO14001 are indicators of a company’s environmental awareness, and could become a key requirement for companies competing for business, particularly in the public sector.
Brand perception
While established companies have spent great efforts on building their brand, their customers' perception of the brand can change very rapidly. How the company presents itself to its stakeholders is the basis for this perception, and with the high profile of green issues there is a growing expectation of a sound ecological policy. According to a global Ipsos Mori poll published in October 2007, 53 per cent of respondents said they were more likely to purchase services from a company with a good environmental reputation, and 80 per cent of individuals favoured green companies when it came to choosing an employer.
Cost of energy
While marketing and PR policies will have medium to long-term impacts on the bottom line, it is immediate costs that tend to grab management attention. The rising cost of energy means that investment in IT hardware is becoming a dwindling cost of running a data centre. Gartner predicts that energy costs will become the second highest cost in 70% of the world’s data centres by 2009, trailing staff/personnel costs, but well ahead of the cost of the IT hardware.
Under its Energy White Paper, the Government proposes to introduce a cap and trade system for carbon emissions - targeting operations whose average burn over a 24 hour period tops 685kW. Many data centres are likely to fall into this category. In 2010 a pilot scheme will be launched with companies being taxed on their carbon footprint. By 2013 the cap will be enforced, placing a limit of the footprint size, forcing carbon credit trading if companies exceed their cap.
Industry Reactions
The Green Grid is an IT industry effort to lower the overall power consumption in data centres around the globe. The group declared itself open for business at the beginning of 2007 and its members include AMD, APC, Dell, HP, IBM, Rackable Systems, SprayCool, Sun and VMware and, more recently, Intel.
IBM has also pledged $1bn per year to develop technology it hopes can double the capacity of its data centres without increasing energy use and the amount of space required.
Nationwide, Lloyds TSB, Tesco, BA, Citi and Betfair have all announced green initiatives over 2007. Click here for more details.
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