IT Outsourcers Turn Green

The cost of powering a server over 3 years is now more than the cost of the server itself and economic pressures are very efficient levers to direct action. As a result, environmental concerns are creeping higher and higher up the strategic agenda. Initially, corporations looked internally for sustainability and environmental efficiency, however there is now a growing realization that this concept should be extended to a companies wider organizational eco-system and that responsibility should now be extended to the supplier community that support their business activity. Sun Microsystems has designed new datacenters in US, UK and India to lower the company's power consumption. Sun estimates that the company's datacenter efforts will save the planet nearly 4,100 tones of CO2 per year and trim one percent from Sun's total carbon footprint. The supermarket Tesco plans to include carbon footprint labeling on all of its products. Online bank First Direct has installed new technology to reduce its use of electricity and airlines such as EasyJet are working hard to convince passengers that they can still fly with a clear conscience. In the retail industry, consumers have ultimate power and retailers will respond accordingly. With outsourcing the consumer is one or two steps removed, but with improved communications technology, an organizations inner workings and standards are easily accessible and quickly distributed. There are multiple valid reasons for this concern, but one of the main ones is incredibly simple; the more technical devices in circulation, the more power is needed, requiring increased energy requirements and therefore increased CO2 emissions. Organizations are increasingly beginning to consider the environmental impact of their actions, partly as a result of the increased importance of a green corporate image, but also as a result of the rising cost of energy. IBM is also following similar initiatives to make computing more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. IBM is committing to spend $1 billion a year on a project named "Project Big Green" and have developed a five step program for companies looking to cut power use in datacenters. According to a recent study carried out by Brown & Wilson, authors of the "Black Book of Outsourcing' organizations in North America and Europe plan to continue their outsourcing initiatives while cautiously shifting functional responsibility for corporate environmental concerns to the supplier. However the report also points to an increased appetite and demand from buyers of outsourced services for more comprehensive green initiatives to assure compliance. The report is based on an independent study of outsourcing industry decision makers and analysts with a survey of 20,000 outsourcing users. Almost half - 43% - of companies choosing to use a supplier for the first time included green factors in their decision making process for choosing suppliers.