AIIA GreenIT eBook

The Australian Information Industry Association have released "Greening Your Business Through Technology: Leading you towards a sustainable future through GreenIT". This could make a useful contribution to help educate the IT industry about environmental issues, including CO2 pollution. However, the material needs to be reformatted to make it usable online.

The material for the book was prepared by Scott Evans. Scott consulted me and I was delighted to see in the list of "Local GreenIT Training and Certification Programs", both the ACS and ANU, courses I designed (now also in book form). Also listed are the Box Hill TAFE – GreenIT Course and the Excom Education courses. Interest in such course seems to be picking up and I have recently been contacted by universities in Sweden and North America about green ICT course design.

The book consists of three PDF files:

1. Greening Your Business Through Technology: 72 pages, 6.3 Mbytes
2. Case Studies: 79 pages, 4.9 Mbytes
3. Appendices: 52 pages, 0.9 Mbytes

Unfortunately the PDF is poorly formatted, with a few unnecessarily images making the files about four times the size they needs to be. This slows down loading of the document. The background image on the cover decompresses to 125 Mbytes, making scrolling of the document difficult on a low power computer, such as a netbook. The large file size will also result in the document causing more greenhouse gas emissions than needed, which is ironic for a book about green ICT.

AIIA is planning an online an interactive version. However, they should first improve the formatting of the PDF version. With some simple changes, such as reducing the size of images and not having vertical text, the book could be made much more usable. Also, rather than an interactive version, a genuine e-Book using web based formatting, as used in the Amazon Kindle and e-Learning systems, would be more useful. The material could then be quickly distributed and incorporated in training courses. An interactive version could then be produced from that (the PDF version of the book would be difficult to use for education). So far AIIA have produced a poorly formatted PDF file, not a real eBook.

Greening Your Business Through Technology
Table of Contents

1 Introduction to ‘Greening Your Business Through Technology’

• 1.1 Foreward from John Lenders MLC (Treasurer, Minister for Information and Communication Technology and Financial Services) 3
• 1.2 Letter from Bob Hayward (Director AIIA National GreenIT Taskforce) 4

2 Executive Summary 6

• 2.1 Purpose of the Document 6
• 2.2 Background 7
• 2.3 How to Achieve the Vision of a Low Carbon Economy 9
• 2.4 Why Adopt GreenIT? 12
• 2.5 Case Study: Canon – GreenIT Drivers 14

3 Getting Started 15

• 3.1 Overview of Quick Wins 15
• 3.2 Case Study: SEMA – eLearning (Business Innovation) 16
• 3.3 Case Study: Tradeslot – Client Facing Teleconferencing (Business Innovation) 17
• 3.4 Case Study: PowerfulCMS – Teleworking (Business Innovation) 18
• 3.5 Case Study: Innovation Science – Energy Management
• (Low Investment Option – Technology Innovation) 19

4 Next Steps 20

• 4.1 Getting Ready for Further Action 20
• 4.1.1 Case Study: Fujitsu – Journey Over Time 21
• 4.2 GreenIT Responsibilities 22
• 4.2.1 Director – Risks and Liabilities 22
• 4.2.2 Finance – Carbon Disclosure Reporting 25
• 4.2.3 Information Technology – Implementing GreenIT Products and Services 26
• 4.2.4 Marketing – The Legal Requirements of Promoting Green Products and Services 28
• 4.2.5 Case Study: Intel – Sustainable Program Office 30
• 4.3 Developing a GreenIT Roadmap 31
• 4.3.1 Case Study: Telstra – Cost Benefit Analysis Calculators (Business Innovation) 33
• 4.3.2 Case Study: PCA People – Green Business Certification Program
• (Business and Technology Innovation) 35
• 4.3.3 Case Study: Toyota – Developing a GreenIT Roadmap (Business and Technology Innovation) 35

5 Taking Further Action 36

• 5.1 Overview of Medium-term Initiatives 36
• 5.2 Case Study: Corporate Express – Data Centre Optimisation (Technology Innovation) 38
• 5.3 Case Study: Jetstar – Virtualisation (Business and Technology Innovation) 39
• 5.4 Case Study: Intel – Server Hardware Refresh Using Energy Efficient Equipment
• (Technology Innovation) 40
• 5.5 Case Study: Connex – Carbon Management System (Business Innovation) 41
• 5.6 Case Study: BLADE – Integrated Blade & Top of Rack Switches (Technology Innovation) 42
• 5.7 Case Study: DELL – Energy Management
• (Enterprise Solution – Minimum 200 Desktops – Technology Innovation) 43

6 The Future 44

• 6.1 Overview of Long-term Initiatives that Create a New Agenda 44
• 6.2 Smart Planet (Business and Technology Innovation) 45
• 6.3 Cloud Computing (Business and Technology Innovation) 48
• 6.4 Case Study: Handset Detection – Cloud Computing (Business Innovation) 51

7 GreenIT Values – Philosophical Considerations with Embracing GreenIT 52

• 7.1 Overview of Philosophical Considerations with Embracing GreenIT 52
• 7.2 Sustainable Consumption and Production 52
• 7.3 Product Stewardship 53
• 7.3.1 Case Study: Sustainability Victoria – Byteback Australia (Business Innovation) 56
• 7.4 Sustainable Supply Chain 57
• 7.4.1 Product Stewardship (Identify the Opportunities) 58
• 7.4.2 Smarter Procurement (Making it Happen) 58
• 7.4.3 Product Differentiation (Capitalise on the Benefits) 60
• 7.4.4 Green Supply Chain Myth – Green Products/Services Always Cost More 60
• 7.4.5 Sustainable Supply Chain Resources 61
• 7.4.6 Snapshot: Wal-Mart – Sustainable Product Index (Business Innovation) 63
• 7.4.7 Snapshot: State Government of Victoria – Environmental Selection Criteria
• for Multi-function Devices (Business Innovation) 63
• 7.4.8 Case Study: State Government of Victoria – Environmental Selection Criteria
• for Desktops and Laptops (Business Innovation) 65

8 Closing Remarks 66

• Josh Millen, National Manager for Environment and CSR (AIIA) 66
• Scott Evans, Editor of the AIIA ‘Greening Your Business With Technology’ eBook 67

9 Glossary 68

Case Studies

Introduction i
Methodology i
1 Case Study: Canon – GreenIT Drivers 1
2 Case Study: SEMA – eLearning (Business Innovation) 6
3 Case Study: Tradeslot – Client Facing Teleconferencing (Business Innovation) 9
4 Case Study: PowerfulCMS – Teleworking (Business Innovation) 12
5 Case Study: Innovation Science – Energy Management
Low Investment Option – Technology Innovation 15
6 Case Study: Fujitsu – Journey Over Time 19
7 Case Study: Intel – Sustainable Program Office 30
8 Case Study: Telstra – Cost Benefit Analysis Calculators (Business Innovation) 35
9 Case Study: PCA People – Green Business Certification Program
(Business and Technology Innovation) 38
10 Case Study: Toyota – Developing a GreenIT Roadmap (Business and Technology Innovation) 41
11 Case Study: Corporate Express – Data Centre Optimisation (Technology Innovation) 45
12 Case Study: Jetstar – Virtualisation (Business and Technology Innovation) 49
13 Case Study: Intel – Server Hardware Refresh Using Energy Efficient Equipment
(Technology Innovation) 54
14 Case Study: Connex – Carbon Management System (Business Innovation) 57
15 Case Study: BLADE – Integrated Blade & Top of Rack Switches (Technology Innovation) 60
16 Case Study: DELL – Energy Management (Enterprise Solution – Minimum 200
Desktops – Technology Innovation 62
17 Case Study: Handset Detection – Cloud Computing (Business Innovation) 65
18 Case Study: Sustainability Victoria – ByteBack Australia (Business Innovation) 68
19 Snapshot: Wal-Mart – Sustainable Product Index (Business Innovation) 71
20 Snapshot: State Government of Victoria – Environmental Selection Criteria for
Multi-function Devices (Business Innovation) 72
21 Case Study: State Government of Victoria – Environmental Selection Criteria for
Desktops and Laptops (Business Innovation) 74

Appendices:

Appendix 1: GreenIT Success Factors 2
Appendix 2: GreenIT Best Practices 3
Appendix 3: Hazardous Materials in IT Equipment 8
Appendix 4: Data Centre Optimisation 9
Appendix 5: Carbon Management Software 10
Appendix 6: Power Management Software 24
Appendix 7: Print Management Software 27
Appendix 8: Calculators & Toolkits 28
Appendix 9: Industry Organisations and Accreditation Programs 29
Appendix 10: Vendor Green Portals 34
Appendix 11: Local Green Directories 35
Appendix 12: Local Green Research 37
Appendix 13: GreenIT News 38
Appendix 14: Local GreenIT Forms 41
Appendix 15: Local GreenIT Training and Certification Programs 42
Appendix 16: Further Reading on GreenIT 44
Appendix 17: Sustainability Performance Indicators 45
Appendix 18: AIIA GreenIT Quick Reference Guide – Featured Organisations 47
Appendix 19: List of eBook References 51

Purpose

Recognising the need to inform Australian organisations about GreenIT practices, the vision for the Greening Your Business through Technology eBook was conceived by AIIA’s Sustainability Team, who liaised with Multimedia Victoria to commission this study.

As a result, Australia's most comprehensive and current industry resource on GreenIT has been developed. It reflects a commitment from AIIA and the Australian Technology industry to engage closely with the business community on the transformational role of ICT - working together we can fashion a low carbon economy.

Beyond the overview and quick wins, the eBook is a practical resource providing 21 real world case studies supporting each key topic and in doing so, presents a clear road map on how activities and actions can be undertaken to effect transformational change.

Greening Your Business through Technology gives Australian business managers the information they need to use technology responsibly and innovatively. As the practices covered in this book are put in place, we can look forward to a cleaner, more sustainable Australia.

Bob Hayward
AIIA National Board Director

Chief Technology and Innovation Officer - CSC Asia
Director, AIIA National GreenIT Taskforce

eBook: Greening Your Business through Technology

Greening Your Business through Technology is divided into three sections. The purpose of this eBook is to empower the key decision makers within organisations by allowing them to make informed decisions on how to enhance their business operations through the use of Green IT. Each section can be downloaded separately.

AIIA GreenIT eBook: Greening Your Buiness Through Technology

Greening Your Business Through Technology covers a wide range of GreenIT and Sustainability topics, including: Getting Started, Next Steps, Taking Further Action, The Future and GreenIT Values. The book also includes synopsises for 21 case studies that deliver practical examples examining each of these topics.

AIIA GreenIT eBook Case Studies

This section is linked to from the book via each case study synopsis in the main eBook, or may be downloaded as an independent book of complete case studies. The case studies provide detailed versions of each synopsis. This level of detail will be useful for individuals and organisations looking for an in-depth understanding on how a particular IT application or solution was applied to achieve a better outcome for the business concerned.

AIIA GreenIT eBook Appendices

The Appendices provide complementary resource materials and helpful suggestions on additional research that companies can undertake.

About this book

Together, the three sections provide a comprehensive range of relevant ‘Green IT’ implementation opportunities with supporting case study references. Each case study provides a practical example of implementing relevant IT initiatives and elaborates on:

• the advantages of using GreenIT products and services, with a focus on SMEs
• how ICT can reduce CO2 footprints and bottom line spending
• GreenIT best practice. ...

From: Greening Your Business Through Technology: Leading you towards a sustainable future through GreenIT, Version 1.0, November 2009, AIIA, 2009