SVKM’S NMIMS UNIVERSITY

MUKESH PATEL SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT

A REPORT ON

Green IT
Case Study: Neutralizing WIPRO’s
Carbon Footprint by 2014

Submitted By
Meenal Shah – 119
Anshika Agarwal – 201
 Green IT can be termed as “the most favourable utilisation of information and
communication technology (ICT) for controlling the environmental sustainability
of the operations and supply chain of an organisation, along with its products,
services, and resources all over their life cycles”.

Information and Communication’s Technology (ICT) Industry

ICT accounts for approximately 2% of Global CO2 emissions
Figure 1: Classification of different components of the ICT sector and their contribution to overall CO2 emissions

The emissions come primarily from components like data centres that house monitors,
servers, etc and are integral to the operations of an IT company.

Example: A simple office computer, when switched on continuously utilises power of at

least 100 watts per hour. The amount of coal needed to generate that energy is 714
pounds which inturn on burning releases on an average 5 pounds of SO2, 5.1 pounds of
NO2 and 1752 pounds of CO2

Effects of ICT on Environmental Sustainability

However, the good part about this is that the IT industry has a silver lining. There are
significant inefficiencies in the technology and user behaviours that can be readily dealt
with and IT can significantly contribute to control and reduce the 98% of CO2 emissions
caused by other activities and industries.

The influence of computing and communications technologies that it commands can

help non-IT companies in numerous industries that are regular users of IT to bring
down their carbon footprints. For example, travel can substituted with teleconferencing,
thereby reducing employee commutes with telecommuting and minimise transactional
delays by employing e-governance strategies.

Raghuraman Kalyanaraman, head of Green IT, Wipro quotes benefits of Green IT as:

“Green IT is not about IT industry alone. It is a lot about non-IT industries discovering
better ways of doing business. Green IT is not about reducing the overall carbon footprint
alone. It is about a world of opportunities for IT companies to generate new streams of
what is called green revenue. Green IT has a spin-off—“IT for Green”—whose value
proposition is compelling.”

In simple language, we can say that “Green IT” can help IT companies reduce their own
carbon footprints while “IT for Green” facilitates reduction of carbon footprints for
their clients.

According to estimates by IBM Corp for a typical data center, out of every 100 kWhs of
energy supplied by a power company, 97 kWhs are consumed for powering and cooling
under-utilised hardware and only 3 kWhs do productive work.

The cumulative effect of such micro-level wastages leads to the ICT industry’s
contribution to global warming

Industry Background

The size of the global IT industry was estimated at US$1.36 trillion in 2008 (Source: IDC,
a US-based market research firm). The industry comprises of 3 categories:-

Hardware:

Amounts to 40% of the total IT spending

Environmental Impact of IT hardware:
1. Use of toxic chemicals such as cadmium, mercury, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls,
brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride in hardware manufacturing,
generating what was known as electronic waste. Such non-biodegradable e-waste
when deposited in landfills pollutes water and soil.
2. Consumption of power (at points of hardware usage)
Data centres are main focus of green initiatives
In a study of 20 electronics brands in India released in June 2008 entitled “Take-Back
Blues: An Assessment of E-Waste Take-Back in India”, Greenpeace stated that “India
generated 1,040 tonnes of e-waste every day from discarded computers, televisions and
mobile phones in 2007. At present, merely 3% of the e-waste reaches authorised recyclers
while the remaining lands in informal recycling yards causing threat to environment and
public health

Software

Software consists of lengthy codes using various programming languages that control
the functioning of computer hardware and direct its operations. However, today most
software companies are using code review processes which enable programmers to
look beyond silos and incorporate codes with minimum processing capacity, thereby
examining green consequences of software development

Services

The main reason for the flourishing ITES industry in India is the labor arbitrage.
According to a report by McKinsey Global institute, ‘Off-Shoring: Is it a Win-Win Game?’
labour charges in US and India were:
US India
Software Developer USD 60 per hour USD 6 per hour
Data Entry Agent USD 20 per hour USD 2 per hour

Another advantage is the educational infrastructure in India which produces about

3million university graduates every year outside the engineering and medical
disciplines. This gives ITES companies maximum opportunities for driving IT for Green.
While providing green solutions for clients, they not only helped them reduce their
individual carbon footprints but find opportunities for launching new products, getting
new customers and generating new revenue streams for themselves.

Strategic Planning for Green IT

1. Define a Policy and Strategy for First- and Second-Order Effects
 Identify the enterprise's position on climate change, e-waste and the environment —
act as a catalyst, if necessary.
 Decide whether the enterprise is going to be aggressive, measured or passive in its
response and to which issues
 Develop a strategy to reduce power consumption and CO2 emissions in the data
center, client computing, network, printing and so forth.
 Create an environmental assessment process for all ICT-related investments.
 Create an equipment disposition process and controls.
 Strategize to identify the second-order effect opportunities within the enterprise.
 Appoint a manager to take oversight
 S
U
L
d
l
c
u
R
b
w
.
P
H
A
D
F
C
d
o
L
h
(
u
y
g
c
f
,
t
n
v
o
r
p
m
)
e
l
s
i
a
r
w
g
n
i
/
2. Measure Data Center Energy Efficiency, Reward the Right Behaviours

3. Consider Energy at Every Decision Level — Use the ICT Energy Stack

4. Take a Holistic Approach to Reducing IT, Cooling and Power Loads

5. Switch OFF systems when Not in Use!

The Opportunity









PCs, monitors generate about 1/3 rd of ICT power consumption and CO2 emissions
9% to 15% of office power is consumed by office equipment (PCs and monitors)
Sixty percent of PCs are left on after hours

Solution

 Measure and report office power consumption — get granular.

Use and enforce "aggressive" power management and automated systems
Channel the active screen savers
Educate staff
Use a low-power state, such as standby or hibernate for PCs after certain time
6. Greening Printers and Printing

Opportunity

 The paper itself consumes 10x the energy of printing on it.

 178 million printers, copiers and MFDs shipped in 2007.
 Average office worker prints 1,000 pages/month, 40 lbs/month.
 Too many printers on desks; too many models.

Solution

 Print less — measure and Analyze document flows

 Educate staff — why this makes a difference.
 Enforce duplex printing (explain why).
 Use pull printing and drop the banner page.
 Buy Energy Star devices.
 Consolidate printers into fewer, standard, low -impact, better MFDs that share the
same consumables.
 Use long-life drums. Check remanufactured quality and recycling.
 Recycle — paper, toner cartridges.
 Dispose of used drums and printers appropriately