UNIT I

FUNDAMENTALS
Green IT Fundamentals: Business, IT, and the Environment – Green computing: carbon foot print, scoop on
power – Green IT Strategies: Drivers, Dimensions, and Goals –Environmentally Responsible Business:
Policies, Practices, and Metrics.
PART - A
(2 MARKS)

1. Define Green Computing / Green IT.

Green computing is the environmentally responsible and eco-friendly use of computers and their
resources. In broader terms, it is also defined as the study of designing, engineering, manufacturing,
using and disposing of computing devices in a way that reduces their environmental impact.

2. List out the needs of Green IT.

❖ Carbon efficiency is considered one of the major reasons behind efficiency and effectiveness of
any organization.
❖ Reducing carbon consumption reduces the cost is the promising condition for achieving the
mantra of Lean Organization is the one that looks for increasing value by reducing cost.
❖ Green IT aims at attaining the goal of reduced cost by adapting the right individual attitude and
working lifestyle, thus reframing the rules and regulations of business.
❖ The need for Green and sustainable ICT is required to collaborate technologists, developers,
politicians, researchers and consumers.
3. What are the four stages of a complete Green It vision of an enterprise?
❖ IT as a Producer
❖ IT as an Enabler
❖ Green Enterprise
❖ Green Collaboration
4. List out the major aims of Green computing.
❖ To reduce the use of hazardous materials so as to improve the climate change and help preserve
nature.
❖ Maximize energy efficiency during the product’s lifetime.
❖ Promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste.
❖ Computing cost reduction
❖ Reliability of power – energy efficient systems are in high demand to meet the energy demand
as well preserve healthy power supply.
❖ Save the amount spent on power, components and devices.
5. What are the approaches to Green computing?
❖ Green Use
❖ Green Disposal
❖ Green Design
❖ Green Manufacturing
6. Define Green Value.
Green value is the overall value consumer’s gain by using green products and services. Green value is
the sum of the financial, environmental, social, information and functional benefits that a green product

or service can provide to the consumers.

7. What are the opportunities presented by Green IT?

The opportunities presented by Green IT are:
❖ To reduce carbon emissions, for example in the transportation area.
❖ The use of smart automation and driving, real-time traffic alerts, and the Green IT-enabled
logistics systems, helps to decrease total mileage and the amount of fuel essential to transport
people and goods.
8. List a few practical applications of Green IT.
❖ Algorithmic Efficiency
❖ Resource Allocation
 ❖ Virtualization
❖ Terminal Servers
❖ Power Management
❖ Power Supply
9. What is Carbon Footprint?
The total amount of Greenhouse Gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities,
usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). Sum of all emissions of carbon dioxide for a
given time frame is referred to as Carbon footprint. Carbon footprint is also referred to as the total set of
GreenHouse Gas emission caused by an organization, event, product or person. It is an extension of
“Ecological Footprints''.

10. Diagrammatically represent the relationship between Carbon emission and Green computing.

11. Define Data Centers.

Data Center is a facility housing a large number of servers and data storage. In reality the electricity bill
for a data center is close to 6 million a month with about 20 percent of the power spent on cooling the data
centers. The average amount of money spent on buying the servers amortized over a period of three years
is almost equal to the cost of powering the servers.
12. Compare CRT and LCD monitor.

13. Define Power Usage Effectiveness.

Power Usage Effectiveness = Total Facility Power/IT Equipment Power

The PUE is a ratio of the input power to the actual amount of power required by the servers at a Data
Center. If the amount of power required to cool the system is 100 percent , then the PUE grows to 2
which is undesirable.
14. What are the four dimensions of Green IT?
1.economy (why),
2.Technology (what),
3.process (how),
4. people (who).
15. What are the goals of Green computing?
❖ To cut down to as little as possible the amount of energy used.
❖ To minimize the inclusion of harmful materials.
❖ To use as many biodegradable materials as possible.
❖ To extend as far as possible the life of the equipment.
16. Define Sustainability.
The quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting the natural resources and thereby
supporting long-term ecological balance.
17. List out the metrics used to measure power consumption in Data centers.
❖ Thermal Design Power.
❖ Power Usage Effectiveness
❖ Data center infrastructure efficiency
❖ Compute Power efficiency
❖ Energy reuse factor
❖ Carbon usage effectiveness
❖ Water usage effectiveness
18. What are the Sustainable business practices?
❖ Be Intentional About Sustainability
❖ Partner with Employees
❖ Water and Electric conservation
❖ Supply chains
❖ Develop a recycling program.
❖ Chemical management
❖ Purchase only energy efficient products
❖ Develop sustainability work policies
19. What are the advantages of Green computing?
Green computing can save energy
Green computing can save money in the long run
More sophisticated recycling processes
Waste reduction
Reduction of the resource depletion problem
Less pollution
Less greenhouse gas emissions
More efficient hardware use
Sustainable IT practice
Increases pressure to go green in the IT industry
Reduction of health risks for customers
Better working conditions
Teleworking may improve flexibility
Green computing may strengthen the brand of companies
Positive impact on our flora and fauna
20. List the disadvantages of Green IT.
Significant upfront costs
Plenty of knowledge may be required
Green IT may conflict with profit maximization goals
May slow down computer networks
Technological change may make older IT-systems obsolete
Acceptance inside companies may be rather low
Lacking awareness of the general public
Green IT may be vulnerable to safety issues
May not be manageable for small businesses
Reliance Maintenance may be difficult
Many technologies aren’t actually that green
 PART -B
1. What is green computing? What are the pathways of green IT?
Green computing is a scientific study of efficient and effective designing, manufacturing, using, disposing,
and recycling of computers and computer related products like servers, network systems, communication systems,
monitors, USBs, printers, etc. The study uses science to create technologies that help to preserve natural resources
and reduce the harmful impact on the environment.
The goal of green computing is very clear and simple: reduction in the use of harmful materials,
maximizes energy efficiency, and promotes recyclability. Green computing is commonly referred to as Green IT.
The idea is to ensure the least human impact on the environment. Apart from this, it aims to achieve
environmental sustainability.
These are pathways of green IT that focus on various activities such as:
1. Power Management: This feature means conservation of power used by all electrical appliances with
power saving/management features.
2. Energy Efficient Computing: Computers have a fan/heater-like component inside them.
Unfortunately, not many people are aware of this. Energy waste is leading to a climatic change from
burning coal and oil.
3. Remediation of Environmental Pollutants: This deals with reducing and removing pollution or
contaminants from groundwater, soil, surface water, or sediments.
4. Server Virtualization: Here the idea is to use one server which connects with many individual
computers.
5. Sewage Treatment: This waste water treatment involves removing of contaminants from waste water
and sewage.
6. Efficient Disposal/Waste Management: This is the collection, processing, recycling, and disposal of
waste materials.
7. Efficient Recycling: Reusing products is much better than letting them stay in landfills.
8. Regulatory Compliance: A strategy must be designed by governments, which would offer rules for
curbing waste management, reducing pollution, and stringent penalties for noncompliance.
 9. Recycling and Water Purification: This is the process of removing all unneeded materials and
contaminants from water.
10. Green Metrics and Methodology: It is important to quantify sustainability and environmental
performance to help reach our goals.
11. Renewable Resources: Use of renewable sources of energy such as solar power and wind to serve
purposes like heating, cooking, etc.
12. Eco-Labeling of IT Products: More companies should design their products so they receive the
eco-label.
13. Thin Client Solutions: Thin client is also known as a lean client solution, and requires computers to
depend on another computer or server to function

2. Explain Carbon Footprint. How can we calculate it? Mention the steps to reduce carbon footprint.
A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases—primarily carbon dioxide—released into the
atmosphere by a particular human activity. A carbon footprint can be a broad measure or be applied to the
actions of an individual, a family, an event, an organization, or even an entire nation. It is usually measured as
tons of CO2 emitted per year, a number that can be supplemented by tons of CO2-equivalent gases, including
methane, nitrous oxide, and other greenhouse gases.

How is a carbon footprint calculated?

When calculating a carbon footprint, a lot of factors are taken into consideration. For example, driving to the
grocery store burns a certain amount of fuel, and fossil fuels are the primary sources of greenhouses gases. But
that grocery store is powered by electricity, and its employees probably drove to work, so the store has its own
carbon footprint. In addition, the products that the store sells were all shipped there, so that must also be
factored into the total carbon footprint. Beyond that, the fruits, vegetables, and meats that the store sells were
all grown or raised on farms, a process that produces methane, which has a greenhouse effect 25 times greater
than CO2. All of those elements must be combined to understand the full carbon footprint of a given activity.
 How can we calculate our carbon footprint?

Although adding up one’s individual carbon footprint can be difficult, online calculators can do some of
the work for you, giving a rough estimate of your carbon footprint based on the size of your household, the
efficiency of your appliances, how much you drive or fly, what you eat, and how much you recycle.

This isn't perfect, but it is a good way to measure your activities so you can understand roughly how
much CO2 they generate and take steps to reduce your carbon footprint.

How can we reduce our carbon footprint?

Methods of reducing your carbon footprint include driving more-efficient vehicles (or making sure that
your current vehicles are properly maintained), taking public transportation, using energy-efficient appliances,
insulating your home to reduce heating and air conditioning costs, consuming food that doesn't require as
much transportation, and eating less meat, which has a higher carbon footprint than fruits and vegetables.
Individuals and companies can also offset some of their CO2 emissions by purchasing carbon credits, the
money from which can go into projects such as planting trees or investing in renewable energy.

3. Explain the concept of Green Manufacturing.

Sustainable manufacturing (SM) or green manufacturing for our purpose can be defined as a method for
manufacturing that minimises waste and reduces the environmental impact. These goals are to be obtained
mainly by adopting practices that will influence the product design, process design and operational principles.
Therefore, sustainable manufacturing may be defined as a system that integrates product and process design
issues with issues of manufacturing, planning and control in such a manner as to identify, quantify, assess, and
manage the flow of environmental waste with the goal of ultimately reducing the environmental impact to that
of the self-recovery capability of the Earth could deal with while also trying to maximise resource efficiency.
“The final quantitative benefits of green manufacturing in order of their decreased ranking are improved
morale, improved brand value, lowered regulatory concerns, increased market opportunities, improved product
performance and decreased liabilities. The quantitative benefits of green manufacturing are related to either
waste (reduced waste handling cost, lowered waste categorisation cost, reduced waste treatment cost, reduced
waste disposal cost and reduced waste storage cost) or life cycle of the product (lowered transportation cost,
decreased packaging cost, reduced overall cost of the product, lowered cost of production, reduced user
operation/use cost, lowered maintenance/service cost and reduced overall cost to the organisation).”

Sustainable Manufacturing Tools:

The tool generally used to implement SM is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It is an approach to
examine fully the environmental impact of different activities performed by humans including the production of
goods and services by corporations. LCA can be applied for any activity that is either at national level or global
level in order to identify environmental burdens resulting from the activities of a society, region or industrial
sector. In fact, LCA can provide an excellent insight for the engineer to study any given product such that he/she
can identify the methods to reduce the environmental impact of a specific product or process. A schematic of
the methodology employed for carrying out the LCA is given in Fig 1.
LCA is concerned with identifying the environmental impact of a given product or process at each of
these life stages. Full implementation of LCA allows the engineer to make a quantitative comparison of the
stages of a product’s life, determine where the greatest environmental benefit is to be gained, and ultimately
monitor the long term effect of changes in design and/or manufacturing.
Let us take an example to illustrate the point of how the consideration of LCA makes a very strong
contrast to what we normally think about the environmental impact of the products. Consider a car used for
personal transportation as an example. The energy consumed during the resource extraction and transportation
for making the car is 9.2%, production and selling of a car is 13.9%, during the actual use of car during the
lifetime is 76.8%, and the end of life vehicle disposal is 0.1%. As can be seen from this example, it is clear that
the biggest impact is to be made at the consumer use life stage. In order to reduce the environmental impact of
the car, the approach should be to develop cars with higher mileage and lower emissions.
The ISO standards assume a process-based LCA approach and are organised into four steps: goal and
scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation as shown in Fig 2. It is important to
understand the goals of the LCA and the methods to achieve them. Though this is a framework, the way the
goals are formulated, the work involved is going to be enormous. The deeper the level of analysis, better will be
the understanding. That will also provide better solutions to achieve the required results. However, this will also
call for a lot of effort from the user. Therefore, during the first step, appropriate scope should be defined. This
will be followed in the second step to develop a quantitative analysis of the material and energy inputs to the
product or process at all levels. In this, it is also important to measure the possible environmental releases. Here,
in the problem, though our interest is to find the actual releases over the entire life cycle, the designer/engineer
will only have limited knowledge or control on what the user of the product will be doing.
In the third step, the outputs of the system at each stage are related to direct impact on the external
world. The trouble with this stage is that data that will be generated is controversial, incomplete or wholly
unavailable. Also, many of the impacts will depend on global and will not be necessarily regional in nature. For
example, the release of CFCs into the atmosphere. As a result, data for this step is often qualitative in nature.
The last step in the process utilises the findings from the three previous steps and makes recommendations for
the environmental improvement of the product or process under consideration. Ideally, this information provides
direct input for proactive approaches, such as, design for the environment initiatives.
Sustainable manufacturing approaches
Sustainable manufacturing requires that all manufacturing organisations should aim for the following four
activities that would help the environment across its entire supply chain with activities that are identified.
• Energy use reduction
• Water use reduction
• Emissions reduction
• Waste generation reduction
Sustainable manufacturing should integrate sustainable activities at all levels of manufacturing –
product, process and system. We are familiar with the 3R as reduce, reuse and recycle that is commonly
followed. This needs to be expanded to more R’s, such as, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, redesign,
remanufacturing, repurpose, refurbish, refuse, etc.
The reduction should always start at the source level to be more effective. Therefore, the first part of the
effort should be by incorporating sustainability in the product design to account for environmental impacts over
the entire life of the product. Designing products to be environmentally benign can contribute to their successful
introduction and maintenance. Designing products with easy disassembly help in the process of repair, reuse,
repurpose and remanufacture. Designing products with easy maintainability help in prolonging the use of the
product more efficiently. Product flexibility, for example, allows for environmental improvements, like
materials substitution, while retaining competitiveness. The expected decrease in product life cycles with
increased product customisation is likely to make flexibility increasingly important.
Sustainable manufacturing processes:
Manufacturing processes and systems employed should consider sustainability at every level, so that
there will be comprehensive adherence to sustainability principles. All the processes used are energy efficient
while maintaining requisite quality. All the interconnected systems also share the same philosophy. Reduce
energy intensity and emissions in all operations and the supply chain. Zero-emission (i.e. closed-loop)
manufacturing views the manufacturing system as an industrial ecosystem, and requires the reuse of wastes or
by-products within the manufacturing system. Manufacturing systems employed should have the flexibility for
material substitution, and accommodate variations in material flows to assist in enhancing sustainability while
maintaining competitiveness. To reduce the environmental impacts of manufacturing processes, it is necessary
to optimise the environmental performance of the existing processes as well as develop new green processes.
Optimise the environmental performance: So far, manufacturing processes are generally designed for
high performance and low cost with little attention paid to environmental issues. Most of the time, optimisation
of a process is done with reference to minimising the machining time or machining cost with no consideration
for the environment. The costing models considered rarely included the cost of environmental compliance.
However, it is necessary to consider the cost of compliance to the environmental guidance.

4. Define Green IT. Explain Green IT Strategies.

Green IT is the sustainable practice of reduced environmental impact using low cost energy and
environmentally friendly technologies in designing, manufacturing, using and disposing of IT equipment. Green
is just another term for the energy efficient and environment friendly way of using electronic equipment and
technologies.
Green IT has been around for quite some time and the environmental impact of IT operations is one of
the main concerns for IT professionals. However most of them are unaware of how to proceed to reduce the
environmental impact of their IT operations through sustainable Green IT strategies.
Green IT Strategies:
Formulating a strategic plan helps organisations to move forward in implementing Green IT practices
incrementally. A Green IT strategic plan must be aligned with business strategies and this becomes one of the
key components of an organisation’s sustainability agenda (Waheed & Seddon, 2010). IT operations will never
be absolutely carbon neutral, but reducing the carbon footprint is achievable through efficiency, reducing paper
usage, managing power usage, virtualisation and consolidation, green procurement, and proper disposal of the
IT assets.
4.1 Measure and Create a Baseline
The first stage requires the organisation to measure the energy consumption, carbon emission and operating
cost of IT infrastructure and its operations. Once the energy draw of IT equipment and annual uptime for each
device is measured, then the other two aspects of Green IT baseline, carbon emission and operating cost can be
calculated using a suitable baseline tool (e.g. Forrester’s Green IT baseline calculator, as used to develop the
baseline in the case studies in section 3). This audit should include a list of IT equipment outside the data
centre, and a list of IT equipment and facilities inside the data centre. Again as mentioned by Webber &
Wallace (2009), “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”.
4.2 Create Awareness
Educating the employees about current Green IT trends and initiatives in the industry is an important second
stage. Communicate the Green IT baseline from the strategic to the operational level of the organisation and
showing the environmental impact of the IT operation. Building Green IT awareness in an organisation can
bring many benefits including increased cooperation when policies are implemented. An educational
programme can lead to increased cooperation with measures that take little effort, such as configuring office
computers to use sleep mode or participating in office recycling. Conducting seminars and workshops on
Green IT strategies and their benefits can facilitate the awareness amongst employees.
4.3 Establish a Paperless Office
This will help businesses to reduce waste through effective document management. To build an environment
friendly paperless office, first educate the employees in the office about paper usage and wastage and watch
them at work. Assess how much they print and trace the trail of paper and documents should be conducted.
After getting a real picture, create a plan for how these activities could be accomplished without paper and
show employees how they can get more done with less effort. Educating the employees about the
environmental impact of using paper may get some employees to change, but showing how it improves their
work life will get almost everyone to buy in. Suggestions should include: Use double sided printing in order to
reduce paper usage by 50%. Configure all printers to default to duplex printing and provide clear instructions
to users for those rare situations where single-sided printing is required. Setting up a reprographic centre for
printing, copying, scanning and faxing, will reduce the number of printers and other office peripherals
distributed throughout the organisation. Consolidating the current printers can save significant energy draw
from these devices.
4.4 Power Management
Enable the power management features for servers which allow automatic shutdown and power-up processes to
ensure servers only run as and when required. Reduce the energy, which servers use by deploying blade
servers. The power management features can be extended to all PCs to ensure that when employees are not
using them, or they are out of the office, then they are turned off, enforcing the use of power saving options,
such as hibernation and sleep modes. Start simple with low cost steps: reduce the brightness of monitors to the
lowest setting that is comfortable; turnoff monitors during the hours not in use; avoid using screen savers etc.
4.5 Consolidate and Virtualises
The biggest power draw comes from servers and PCs. The best way to reduce this power usage is to reduce the
number of servers and use thin clients. In many cases it is the easiest and most effective way to transfer
workload from inefficient, under utilised systems to efficient, well utilised equipment. Implement virtualisation
at two different levels: software based and hardware based. In order to achieve more effective and efficient
virtualisation, both software and hardware based virtualisation must be considered. Hardware based
virtualisation adds additional advantages, such as it makes the job of the VMM (virtual machine monitor)
much easier. This allows much simpler, more efficient, and better performing overall virtualised system. The
most commonly used two technologies are Intel’s virtualisation technology (VT) and AMD’s virtualisation
(AMD-V). Server virtualisation provides benefits to both the IT department and to the users that they serve.
These benefits include: improved investment utilisation, decreased energy usage, more floor space, decreased
IT costs, and improved disaster recovery. In a given time, running more than one application on a server
(application consolidation), reduces the number of servers required to support these applications. The reduction
in the number of physical servers is server consolidation. Fewer servers mean less power consumption and
lower requirement for cooling. If these applications are running in a data centre, having fewer servers also
translates to less rack space thus a smaller footprint for the data centre. Virtualisation can be applied to desktop
computers, storage and application infrastructure as well.
4.6 Green Procurement
Purchasing new IT equipment is the flip side of equipment retirement. Most of the major equipment
manufacturers are trying to meet stricter, “greener” standards in the new equipment they build. But putting
green requirements and selecting equipment that meets published international standards, such as Energy Star
and RoHS certification into purchasing specification, ensure that newer equipment is more efficient, free from
hazardous materials, and easier to recycle. Look out for equipment that is designed for recycling (DfR),
designed for the environment (DfE) and Energy Star or EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment
Tool) certified. Buying the right size equipment is important to eliminate waste. Before buying IT equipment, it
is important to know the purpose, and actual requirement of the particular user. Put green criteria in the tender
evaluation, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star certification into the purchasing
specs ensure that newer equipment is more energy efficient, causes less environmental impact, and is easier to
reuse, refurbish and recycle.

5. Explain in detail about the concept of Four dimensions in Green IT.

Green IT practice translates the green IT strategies, plans, and policies in the day-to-day workings of the
organization by using its transformational and operational capabilities. My approach to green IT in practice is
based on four distinct yet interrelated dimensions of business:
❖ Economy (why),
❖ Technology (what),
❖ Process (how), and
❖ People (who).

1. Economy (Why)
The economic dimension deals with the financial justification for green enterprise transformation. The
key practice in this dimension revolves around metrics that enable justification of the investment in green IT
initiatives. Following are some of the economic factors appearing in green IT practice:

❖ Green ROI metrics justify the business decision to invest in carbon reduction. These are measures that
reflect the business value emanating from the costs, effort, and risks in undertaking a green enterprise
program. For example, the replacement costs of electronic devices are matched against the power and
costs saved over the lifetime of those devices. Costs associated with changes to the service-level
agreements with partner organizations and corporate customers are compared with the carbon and cost
savings resulting from these changes.
❖
❖ Metrics that demonstrate the net present value (NPV) of the carbon initiative over a three- to five-year
period. In this period, the carbon economy can be expected to be in full swing, and the carbon reduction
investments made today will affect the worth of organizations on the stock exchange then (around
2013-15).
❖ Incorporation of intangible and/or otherwise non carbon measures, such as organizational image, subtle
marketing, and motivated HR, in the overall justification for green IT. For example, the image of an
organization as perceived by its customers (or employees) can be measured through a survey and, then,
the same image measured again after the green transformation has taken place. The difference in the
two views of the organization by its customers can be made to count toward the economic benefits
resulting from green initiatives.
❖ The comparison of carbon performance across multiple organizations and industry sectors, especially
when businesses are geographically dispersed. This comparison facilitates understanding of the
economic advantage of green initiatives among competing organizations.
❖ The formulation of KPIs (key performance indicators) that provide financial benchmarks indexed to
carbon benchmarks. For example, a KPI can be “reduction in scope 2 carbon emissions by 10% per
year over the next three years” and can be extended and mapped to “reduction in cost of production by
three to five percent per year for the next three years.” KPIs not only measure progress in carbon
efficiency but also provide an indication of what needs to change.
❖ Regulatory compliance can be considered as a part of the economic dimension of green IT practice,
especially when there are financial penalties associated with noncompliance.Consider, for example, the
mandatory reporting requirement in Australia based on the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting
Act for organizations generating more than 125 kT (Kilo Tonnes). Failure to comply and report incurs
financial penalties of AUS $220,000 (maximum) plus $11,000 for each day that the offense continues
for failure to register/report, and $110,000 (maximum) for failure to keep records.
❖ Carbon trading based on the recording and reporting of emissions. This trade in carbon in a carbon
economy on carbon stock exchanges will make use of CEMS, enabling it to mature into systems-based
 automated trades monitored and enforced by law.

2. Technology (What)
The practice of green IT in the technology dimension deals with reduction of emissions from IT
equipment, such as monitors, computers, data servers, and network equipment. Examples of the technological
dimension of green IT practice include:

❖ Sophistication in managing desktops, laptops, and other individual computing devices when not in use.
This includes switching them off when not in use, using a blank screen saver, centralized power
management, and use of smart operating systems.
❖ Use of smart metering devices that measure and relay emissions in real time and provide feedback and
correction to the equipment.
❖ Printer use in an efficient way through default draft printing, default page cap per user, double-sided
printing, distance printing (i.e., not have a printer by the side of the desktop), and recycling of ink
cartridges.
❖ Virtualization and optimization of data servers and desktop machines.
❖ Use of low-carbon-emitting green monitors and computers instead of the aging and
high-power-consuming computers.
❖ Implementing basic to advanced carbon emissions management software2 for collection and
dissemination of standardized carbon data.
❖ Preferential use of renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and nuclear. This would be based
on increased ease in selecting the source of energy and greater transparency in viewing the effect of the
choices through sophistication in carbon reporting systems.
 ❖ Environmental intelligence (EI) comprises technologies like data warehouses, analytical tools, and
reporting tools. This EI will combine existing business intelligence systems and organizational
processes with the tacit green knowledge people carry.

3. Process (How)
The process dimension of green IT practice deals with the use of IT systems in improving business
processes (e.g., supply chains) and use of standards (e.g., ISO14001). The process dimension in the practice of
green IT is affected as follows:

❖ Business optimization processes such as lean or SixSigma would be also responsible for carbon
reduction. As I mentioned earlier, I have outlined this for lean-green as a method that extends the
principles of lean toward green.
❖ Modeling and implementation of new green processes. These are processes that are built from the
ground up keeping carbon in mind. For example, procurement and disposal processes for electronic
equipment that are directly based on the total carbon calculations over the life of the equipment. Energy
Star-compliant or EPEAT certified and approval by the green IT program committee.
❖ Embedding green organizational policies within the systems that support business processes. Typically,
this would be the modification of ERP applications using SOA-Web services resulting in green CRM,
green SCM, and their integration with CEMS.
❖ Collaborative green business processes that bring together multiple partnering organizations,
government bodies (local, state, or national), and generic international bodies such as IPCC and
research centers to get together electronically and share information and knowledge to reduce
emissions.
 ❖ Apply 14000 family of standards — notably ISO14001 for environmental management systems (EMS).
This standard will provide the basis not only for internal and external EMS implementation but also a
starting point for the comparison of organizational green maturity.
❖ Processes associated with reuse and recycling of equipment that balance the longevity of the equipment
and its ongoing power consumption. Electronic waste disposal will be closely tied with carbon
measurements — starting with the design and production of the equipment, and their procurement,
operations, and disposal carbon costs. Eventually, equipment that simply cannot be used, reused, or
donated needs to be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.
❖ Collaborative business processes, based on Web services that enable support and sharing of carbon
reduction across multiple organizations.

4. People (Who)
The people dimension of green IT practice deals with the soft, sociological aspects of changes to the
organization. Following are some of the areas associated with people that undergo change in a green IT
initiative:

❖ Changing customer preferences with respect to favoring green products and services needs to be
considered and incorporated in product and service design, development, and production.
❖ Basic training and creation of awareness of environmental sustainability and green IT among various
groups of people, including employees, customer groups, and suppliers.
❖ Use of social media networks that generate public opinion, provide carbon-related information,
publicize green standards, as well as facilitate “crowd-sourcing” (e.g., a member of the crowd reporting
a wastage such as street lights on during the day, an oil spill in the neighborhood, or unethical dumping
of batteries or mobile phones).
 ❖ Developing trust and ensuring security associated with carbon data. This applies to both internal and
external parties interested in the carbon performance of the organization.

6. Explain in detail about the goals of Green IT .

The goal of green computing is to attain economic viability and improve the way computing devices are
used. Green computing practices include the development of environmentally sustainable production
practices, energy efficient computers and improved disposal and recycling procedures. There are other goals
of green information technology, most notably at the design and manufacturing stages. In all cases, four main
aims are:

○ to cut down to as little as possible the amount of energy used.

○ to minimize the inclusion of harmful materials.
○ to use as many biodegradable materials as possible.
○ to extend as far as possible the life of the equipment.

Research continues into key areas such as making the use of computers as energy efficient as possible, and
designing algorithms and systems for efficiency-related computer technologies.

To ensure that the goals of green information technology are achieved, the continuing efforts of developers,
researchers, manufacturing companies and end users everywhere are necessary. A part is played in all this by
education. A workforce and general public who have been made aware of the ecological issues of their
computing choices are in the best position to help make IT greener.

7. List out the Sustainable Business Practices in detail.

1. Be Intentional About Sustainability

❖ Sustainability needs to be incorporated into corporate strategies and reflected in organizational business
goals.
 ❖ This means making this a priority in every aspect of organizational operations.
❖ As with any other business initiative, you need to make a plan of action and assign accountability.
Hold people accountable and measure the results

2. Partner with Employees

❖ Invest the time in training employees on the importance of sustaining the environment and share what
the organization is doing to help conserve resources.
❖ Solicit additional ideas from employees for resource conservation.
❖ Get an idea about what employees are experiencing and can offer ideas to reduce waste and improve
their work environment.

3. Water and Electric Conservation

❖ Conserving water is something where everyone participates in by reducing the opportunities for
wasting this valuable resource.
❖ For example, converting to energy-efficient faucets, toilets, and lighting can be a great way to save
water, energy, and budget dollars.

4. Supply Chains

Statistics show that customers prefer working with sustainable companies that are environmentally
friendly. Maintain a list of sustainable friendly vendors and make it a priority to only use organizations
that embrace sustainable business practices. Negotiate contracts with this expectation made clear.

5. Develop a Recycling Program

Develop an in-house program for recyclable products like:

● fluorescent light-bulbs
●
● electronics
● computers and monitors
● paper products
● supplies
6. Chemical Management

Chemical impact on the environment has been plundered in recent times. Strive to use green cleaning
products and non-chemical products for pest control and weed management. Use chemical vendors to
help train employees on the proper use and disposal of chemicals.

7. Purchase Only Energy Efficient Products

Use of energy-efficient electronic products and use environmentally friendly settings on office
equipment. Choose computer, electronic, and IT acquisition products that are EPEAT registered to ensure
the highest levels of efficiency.

8. Develop Sustainability Work Policies

Develop sustainability policies and procedures to reinforce the efforts. Things like, powering down
equipment at the end of the day and enabling energy savings settings on all computers and desktops, are
examples of policies that can support the cause. The challenge to sustain the environment can be
overwhelming, but if each of the organizations, large or small, does its part, everyone can contribute to
conserving this great planet that is home for all living things.
 MCQ
1.--------------is the branch of study that aims at using computers and its associated resources effectively
a) Green IT
b) Data Science
c) Grid Computing
d) Cloud Computing
Ans: a
2. How does computing harm the environment?
a) carbon dioxide emitted by device
b) increase in power cooling
c) cost of spam
d) all of the above
Ans: d
3.What are the visions of Green IT
a) Green collaboration
b) Green Enterprise
c) IT as Enabler & producer
d) all the above
Ans: d
4.How to apply green IT in organisation
a) by Reducing Environmental waste
b) by improving Energy Efficiency
c) both a and b
d) none of the above
Ans: c
5.---------computer consumes 1/3 rd of the power of light bulb with linux os
a) IMEC
b) ZONBU
c) OLED
d) SUN RAY THIN CLIENT
Ans: b
6. Carbon footprint is an Extension of
a) Ecological footprint
b) Human footprint
c) Emission footprint
d) Gas footprint
Ans: a
7.------------is also referred as the total set of greenhouse gas emission caused by an organization
a) Carbon footprint
b) Nitrous oxide
c) Emission footprint
d) Ecological footprint
Ans: a
8.----------- become popular in manufacturing casings for computers and peripherals
a) Toxic materials
b) Bamboo
c) Hazardous Material
d) Non-hazardous Material
Ans: b
9. Total co2 emission in this world is
a) Transport-23.00%& residential-6.60%
b) Industry -19.60% & others 4.90%
 c) Electricity-45.90
d) All of the above
Ans: d
10.---------------releases co2 that makes toxic to the environment
a) Coal gas
b) Natural gas
c) Both a and b
d) None of the above
Ans: c
11. The average consumption of CRT monitor is
a) 86 watts
b) 76 watts
c) 50 watts
d) 20 watts
Ans: b
12.In CRT Monitor consumption when turned off from computer power settings then.how many will be
retained ?
a) 1W
b) 0W
c) 2W
d) 3W
Ans: b
13.The average consumption of LCD Monitor
a) 76W
b) 20W
c) 60W
d) 30W
Ans: b
14. In LCD monitor consumption when turned off the computer power settings then how many watts will be
retained
a) 20W
b) 0W
c) 10W
d) 30W
Ans: c
15.The maximum brightness of grey CRT monitor is
a) 74
b) 84
c) 64
d) 24
Ans: a
16. Green IT strategy must develop
a) Holistic & comprehensive green IT Strategy
b) Plan according to schedules
c) Both a and B
d) None of the above
Ans: c
17. A large enterprise must appoint an--------officer
a) Environmental sustainability officer
b) Revenue officer
c) Forest officer
d) All the above
Ans: a
18.Enterprises also adopts additional measures such as
a) CFG
 b) GHG
c) FHG
d) HGF
Ans: b
19. The various factors for Environmental sustainability are
a) Self interest
b) Economic savings
c) Environmental concerns
d) All of the above
Ans: d
20. Environmental sustainability adopt various policies and practices namely
a) Power management
b) Switching off computer when not in use
c) Both a and b
d) None of the above
Ans: c
21.What are the four Green IT dimensions
a) Economy
b) Technology
c) Process & people
d) All of the above
Ans: d
22. Environmental intelligence comprises technologies like
a) Data Warehouse
b) Analytical and Reporting tools
c) Both a and b
d) None of the above
Ans: c
23. Social media can facilitate
a) Crowdsourcing
b) Employee groups
c) Customers groups
d) None of the above
Ans: a
24. Green IT improve the business by
a) Customers
b) Employees
c) Supply chain
d) All of the above
Ans: c
25.--------------- and optimization of data servers used in green IT Technology
a) Virtualization
b) Sustainability
c) Green compliance
d) Green IT strategy
Ans: a
26. The goal of green IT is to
a) Economic viability and improve way of computing devices
b) Production practices
c) Environmental sustainability
d) All of the above
Ans: d
27.Green IT Design and manufacturing includes
a) 2 stages
b) 3 stages
 c) 4 stages
d) 5 stages
Ans: c
28.The four aims of green it are
a) To cut down to as little as possible the amount of energy used
b) To minimize inclusion of harmful materials & biodegradable materials
c) To extend as far as the life of the equipment
d) All of the above
Ans: d
29. ----------------is to measure relay emission in real time
a) Smart metering devices
b) CRT monitor
c) LCD monitor
d) None of the above
Ans: a
30. The people undergo change in a green IT initiative
a) By changing customer preferences
b) Use of social media
c) Both a and b
d) None of the above.
Ans: c
31.Partner with employees invest the time in
a) Training employees
b) Solicit additional ideas
c) Get an idea from employees
d) All of the above
Ans: d
32. How to develop a recycling program
a) By fluorescent light bulbs
b) Electronics and paper products
c) Both a and b
d) None of the above
Ans: c
33. Metrics used for measuring power consumption in data centers
a) TDE
b) PUE
c) DCIE & CPE
d) All of the above
Ans: d
34. Advantages of green computing are
a) Waste reduction
b) Less pollution
c) Better working conditions
d) All of the above
Ans: d
35. Disadvantages of green computing are
a) Significant upfront cost
b) May slow down computer networks
c) Plenty of knowledge may be required
d) All of the above.
Ans: d