As the economic climate continues to bite and budgets tighten, businesses are forced to streamline by shedding any extraneous weight to help keep them afloat. As a result, there’s a potential danger of wavering support for environmentally sound green IT policies because they’re perceived as a luxury rather than a top line business necessity - It’s not easy being green. Whatever size the business – though especially so for small business with local rollouts – green initiatives can be expensive to implement and time consuming to put in to practice. With this mindset going forward and a more storm to weather in 2009 - will green IT initiatives be put on the back boiler altogether as environmental responsibility gets sidelined? In a word: No. While companies might have less financial collateral to support internal green IT policies, the seeds of green IT initiatives have already been sown by IT manufactures, service partnerships and legislation that will continue to flower – regardless of the current economic climate.

Environmental responsibility is good business. Not just good as a sound business proposition, but good for businesses and- this goes without say- good for everyone else on planet earth. Green IT was once the preserve of the few and expensive for hardware manufactures to build but we’ve now reached the tipping point; a green agenda doesn’t compromise the price and performance of hardware and mass roll out is financially viable for manufacturers. If anything, products are now enhanced by being green and there is already a wealth of green solutions embedded in products and services that small businesses can afford to purchase.

While IT manufactures are offering green IT solutions for hardware and services, there are also several independently measured certificates and legislative directives designed to help buyers make informed purchasing decisions. HP has always had an interest in reducing its environmental impact and, as a global company, has been recognized by many worldwide green IT qualifications. These include China’s Energy Conservation Programme, The Environmental Choice Programme in Canada, Taiwan’s Green Mark, Sweden’s TCO Compliance, Korea’s Eco Label, Japan’s PC Green Label and Germany’s Blue Angel, which was the first ever eco-label created way back in 1978.
Closer to home and more relevant for small to medium businesses in the UK are the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), ENERGY STAR compliance and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. EPEAT is a new certification programme designed to help potential buyers compare the environmental attributes of desktops, notebooks and monitors. To qualify for certification, manufacturers must submit products that comply with the environmental performance criteria for electronic products - IEEE 1680- 2006. The IEEE 1680 standard measures a veritable plethora of measurements that covers the environmental gamut from the reduction of hazardous substances, power consumption and recycling to end of life management, corporate responsibility and packaging. In fact, there are 51 environmental standards that manufacturers must meet to qualify for EPEAT validation and there are three levels of qualification, from Bronze, Silver and Gold. HP has always worked towards reducing its environmental impact by adopting responsible business practices so it was a no brainer that HP would be the first PC manufacturer to register an EPEAT Gold product with the HP Compaq rp5700 Long Lifecycle Business Desktop PC in 2007. HP has continued qualifying for EPEAT Gold status on its business notebooks and desktops and in 2008, HP committed to reduce the energy consumption of its desktops and notebooks by 25 percent in 2010.

ENERGY STAR is a stringent green IT protocol developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy but now adopted though all of the European Union countries. In effect, ENERGY STAR validation acts as a key driver for manufacturers to build energy efficient hardware and practices, which reduce carbon footprints through lower power consumption. ENERGY STAR already has some bold claims. In 2007, US compliant ENERGY STAR rated products reduced emissions equivalent to 27 million cars, while saving several billion dollars in the process.

ENERGY STAR is already on its fourth iteration with version 5.0 was finalised in Nov 2008 and ready to be executed in summer 2009. HP previously supplied the industry’s first business PCs configurable to meet the hardware standards of ENERGY STAR 4.0. Using next generation technological advances like 80 percent efficient power supplies, the business PCs saved energy 52 percent power consumption, which helps reduce running costs when tabulating total cost of ownership.

The European Union’s Waste and Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive was implemented during the second half of 2005 and has informed the way manufacturers, resellers and partners manage their products. It’s very much designed as a Keynesian cradle-to-the-grave solution so manufacturers take full responsibility of their products from birth to end of life and beyond through recycling management. This directive takes the onus of responsibility off end users so small businesses aren’t left with the onerous task of managing the environmental impact of their products in isolation. HP was already providing recycling services for its customers and runs a service called Planet Partners, which offers end-of-life return programmes for hardware and printer cartridges. In fact, so successful was the initial programme that it’s now being expended globally. HP recycled approximately half a one billion pounds of electronics in July 2007 and intends to recycle another billion by the end of 2010.
HP also is the number one supplier to small businesses, so it makes perfect sense for HP to offer a selection of partnership initiatives and deals to encourage potential customers to choose technology leasing deals. Rather than buying hardware, leasing means small businesses have an added incentive to upgrade to the latest technology while HP disposes of old hardware in compliance with the WEE directive at no expense.
Most of HP’s business desktops, notebooks and monitors achieve qualification for independent green IT standards because HP pumps a lot of revenue in to creating propriety environmentally sound technologies. The HP dc7900 Business Desktop PC is engineered for businesses and includes improved power saving technology that helps to reduce operating costs as well as a company’s impact on the environment. It uses low power consumption processors; optional 85 per cent efficient power supplies; data drives and power management solutions that support lower energy usage – lowers operating costs and minimises the environmental impact of running a business.

Naturally, it’s also EPEAT Gold registered and ENERGY STAR® qualified. HP Business notebooks are equally built to minimise environmental impact by eliminating or reducing harmful substances, lessening power consumption and designed for recyclability. HP uses Illumi-Lite displays with Mercury-free LED backlighting and highly recyclable magnesium cases while HP continually seeks to source alternative materials and minimised packaging. Again, many of the commercial notebooks qualify for EPAT Gold certification.

As you can see from the wide range of green IT programmes and incentives on offer, the idea of environmentally sound business is as strong, if not stronger, than it was before the economic climate changed pace. Manufacturers, legislation and certifications have already taken on the responsibility of green IT so it’s not factored as a budgetary issue. Viewed together, all of these initiatives create a holistic end-to-end solution for environmental responsibility and businesses are already seeing the green shoot benefits.