Thread: How are you making your company green?

Being green these days makes you cool somehow. So while the wanna be maniacs are buying Prius how are you making your business more eco friendly.

I was going to buy wind power credits today, however they seem really shady. I mean they will be great for marketing ... but it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. For example if everyone is buying wind power credits you can only buy so much.

I think according to GE 8% of energy comes from renewable sources in the USA. And 9% of that 8% is wind energy. That is nothing.

I am in the IT business so I use a good bit of electricity. Any suggestions?

Originally Posted by lalasd

Being green these days makes you cool somehow. So while the wanna be maniacs are buying Prius how are you making your business more eco friendly.

I was going to buy wind power credits today, however they seem really shady. I mean they will be great for marketing ... but it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. For example if everyone is buying wind power credits you can only buy so much.

I think according to GE 8% of energy comes from renewable sources in the USA. And 9% of that 8% is wind energy. That is nothing.

I am in the IT business so I use a good bit of electricity. Any suggestions?

I've read quite a few articles lately in the local paper about people who have like $3 electric bills, or even have the electric company paying them every month because of their solar power supplementation. I don't know anything about solar panels, except that they cost a grip for the initial setup, the government offers some sort of rebates and tax credits, and they take X amount of years to pay for themselves. It might be worth looking into if you consume a lot of wattage, as they will likely pay for themselves much quicker for you than they will for a regular non-consuming person.

Originally Posted by lalasd

Being green these days makes you cool somehow. So while the wanna be maniacs are buying Prius how are you making your business more eco friendly.

I was going to buy wind power credits today, however they seem really shady. I mean they will be great for marketing ... but it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. For example if everyone is buying wind power credits you can only buy so much.

I think according to GE 8% of energy comes from renewable sources in the USA. And 9% of that 8% is wind energy. That is nothing.

I am in the IT business so I use a good bit of electricity. Any suggestions?

The CEO installed a garden and a bee hive on the roof in the spring and offered free veggies/fruits and honey to help maintain the garden. Also setup storm water reclamation, not sure exactly how it got set up but there is an underground tank that collects water from the downspouts and allows the garden to be watered for essentially the cost of the electricity to run the pump.

For IT the biggest expense relates to cooling. There are a lot of ways to drop temps which in turn drop cooling pricing.

Virtualisation is a prime example of IT going green.

Reduce 5 old physical servers down to a single ESX/HyperV host then your;

- Reducing the carbon foot print on the energy required to make the server (case,chipset,mobo,batteries ect) from x5 to x1.
- Reducing the energy consumption to run the server environment at identical capacity.
- Reducing the on going cooling costs and carbon footprint to keep the ambient temp of the plant/server room/rack in check.

.....Now think about how much of an effect this has when scaled to entire server farms (i.e 50+ servers)

I bought an energy efficient lightbulb once. . .

Originally Posted by Forfend

The CEO installed a garden and a bee hive on the roof in the spring and offered free veggies/fruits and honey to help maintain the garden. Also setup storm water reclamation, not sure exactly how it got set up but there is an underground tank that collects water from the downspouts and allows the garden to be watered for essentially the cost of the electricity to run the pump.

For IT the biggest expense relates to cooling. There are a lot of ways to drop temps which in turn drop cooling pricing.

I can not control the cooling. That is up to the datacenter.

Originally Posted by CUBIX

Virtualisation is a prime example of IT going green.

Reduce 5 old physical servers down to a single ESX/HyperV host then your;

- Reducing the carbon foot print on the energy required to make the server (case,chipset,mobo,batteries ect) from x5 to x1.
- Reducing the energy consumption to run the server environment at identical capacity.
- Reducing the on going cooling costs and carbon footprint to keep the ambient temp of the plant/server room/rack in check.

.....Now think about how much of an effect this has when scaled to entire server farms (i.e 50+ servers)

One step ahead you. All servers are virtualized.

What kind of IT business is it? are all your services hosted or CO-LO in the DC? What is your seat count for the business?

we sell biodegradable/enviro friendly alternatives to customers. We also set up contracts with some clients to properly dispose of their products once finished. People eat this stuff up, especially in California!

I recycle used electronics....

But thats my companies job...

But the company I work for is a low voltage electrical contractor. So we install green certified buildings, LED lights, motion sensed lights, solar/wind power, and a whole lot more

I dont. I hate green.