There's a lot of buzz about green IT. But what is it? It's not about being in the woods with a laptop, or building a server room with grass on the floor.

Green Information Technology is about making sustainable and environmentally conscious decisions in the purchasing, manufacturing and operating of computers and IT infrastructure, something often overlooked in business and personal computing.

What's the benefit? Cost savings, for one. B.C. Hydro estimates that 40 per cent of employees leave their computers on after work, and fail to use power-saving features during the day. As a result, 500 gigawatt-hours of electricity -- or about $29 million -- are wasted every year across the province, just for energy costs.

"A lot more companies are paying attention to sustainability. Shareholders and management are asking about it," says Jessica Vreeswijk, who runs Terrabytes Consulting, a green IT consulting firm based in Victoria. "The IT department now needs to contribute to this new agenda for business,"

Terrabytes performs green IT assessments and project management for businesses. "What we do is build the business case for taking action, and give the numbers, dollars and energy savings to do that."

Green IT applies in four areas: management practices, asset management, IT value and energy consumption, Vreeswijk says.

For management practices, the consultant looks at an organization's purchasing policy, such as whether it buys Energy Star compliant equipment, or whether it considers the operating costs of IT before a purchase. For asset management, Vreeswijk looks to eliminate redundant machines and infrastructure, or looks for redundant workstations, such as unnecessary hot spares -- machines kept on hand to swap with a server when a problem occurs. An organization's resale and recycling policy also comes under the microscope to ensure items are dealt with appropriately.

For IT value, Vreeswijk examines what collaboration tools or paperless initiatives could be implemented to further green the business. For example, virtualization software allows a single physical server to host multiple applications without conflicts, reducing the amount of hardware needed in an organization. Other options include tools that allow teams to work across large distances without the need to travel to meetings.

Terrabytes performed a printing infrastructure assessment for one client, which examined printers, energy consumption, charges, fees, cost of toner and environmental impact to calculate a total cost per page. The client then used that information to demonstrate to employees how much it really costs when someone prints information.

The Royal B.C. Museum commissioned Terrabytes to create a green IT plan, which outlines how the organization can cut IT power consumption by 60 per cent.

Simple changes such as automatic double-siding of printer paper and desktop power management can make a big difference to environmental impact, Vreeswijk says.

B.C. Hydro estimates that a typical user with a CRT -- cathode ray tube as opposed to an LCD, liquid crystal display -- monitor and desktop PC could save more than $15 per year just by using simple power-management techniques. For example, General Electric implemented built-in Windows power management to shift computers into a low-power sleep mode when not in use. It saved the company more than $6.4 million over three years -- enough electricity to light more than 23,000 homes for one year.

For home use, software company Verdiem makes Edison, a free power-management tool for PCs, endorsed by Microsoft. For computers that do not come with a power-management tool, Edison is an easy-to-use solution.

Individuals can also purchase a netbook or laptop rather than a desktop computer, depending on their needs. A laptop uses a fraction of the power of a desktop, and a netbook uses less than that. A netbook is a small laptop meant to run word processing, e-mail, and a web browser, whereas a laptop can be used as a desktop replacement, running such hardware-intensive programs such as video editing and more advanced software.

As well, screen savers don't save power and should be replaced by a power setting that turns the monitor off after a period of inactivity.

Unlike B.C., which benefits from hydro-electric power, other parts of the world often generate power from coal or nuclear sources, which heightens the stakes for implementing a green IT strategy. It has been estimated that a desktop computer paired with a CRT monitor, if left on, can generate as much carbon dioxide over the course of a year as a car, depending on the source of the power.

One of the largest electricity hogs are data centres, large buildings containing the servers that websites and applications are hosted on. Data centres must be kept cool, or the servers will fail. Vreeswijk says typically, for the amount of power a server draws, twice as much is used by the data centre's air conditioning to keep the server cool. Many data centres in California now offer solar-powered web hosting, to provide clean power.

"You could literally heat your home with a few well- placed servers -- there's that much heat coming out the backside," says Robert Gagnon, CEO of WeDoHosting, a data centre in Victoria. He says the biggest cost to a data centre is electricity, used to power servers, routers, switches and air conditioning. Unlike most data centres, WeDoHosting operates a bio-diesel generator during blackouts, rather than burning fossil fuels, part of its environmental philosophy.

A year ago, the company renovated to make space for more servers. Rather than expanding the building into a superfacility, such as those in larger city centres, and wasting more electricity "dumping more cold on hot," Gagnon says WeDoHosting decided to stay small and install strategically placed vents and pipes, coupled with a large fan system to literally "suck the hot [air] out."

"By taking that one step, we're able to cool an entire room of high-performance equipment with a couple of small air conditioners," Gagnon says. "Not only is it more environmentally friendly to do it, we're making more money doing it."

In WeDoHosting's custom system, hot air is siphoned out of the building and discarded, or used to heat the offices for the staff. The company had to change the system a few weeks ago because a server room became too cold, something that never happened before the redesign, Gagnon says.

Now, WeDoHosting is looking into implementing solar-powered web hosting, using low-power servers that draw only 25 watts, less than a typical light bulb, which could be used to host small business and personal websites. The company also runs several Sun Microsystems CoolThreads servers, which are designed to run at low power and low temperature for larger hosting applications.

Gagnon says the company hopes to pull cool air in from the outside during winter, and once temperature-blocking walls are installed, the company hopes to turn off one of its AC units entirely. All this will save the electricity, and therefore, money.

"Little changes like that, when you start piling them up, the quarters become dollars pretty quick," Gagnon says. "Green is the best way to save money. It's logical."

Read Steve Carey's blog at

www.timescolonist.com/rethink.

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GREEN IT COURSES

- Green IT: Applying Sustainability to Information Technology

What: An evening lecture on the environmental impact of IT equipment, specific green IT practices, and an overview of Green IT practices.

Where: Royal Roads University

When: Dec. 3, 7 to 9 p.m.

Cost: No charge. Registration required.

Registration: Call 1-866-890-0220 or 250-391-2600 ext. 4801.

- Conducting a Green IT Assessment

What: A day-long course that offers hands-on training on how to perform a green IT assessment of an organization. It teaches the framework, tools and tactics to conduct an assessment.

When: Feb. 18, 2010, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Royal Roads University

Cost: $255 (includes assessment kit)

Registration: If you're interested in learning how to perform a green IT assessment on a business, you can register at www.royalroads.ca or by calling 1-866-890-0220 or 250-391-2600 ext. 4801.