I’ve mentioned in the past that I specialize in “Green Computing” and I thought I should explain what that means.

Essentially it turns hardware investments into savings opportunities, with the added benefit of helping the environment by reducing or limiting power consumption. An easy example of this is when purchasing a new computer, you can invest in a high-efficiency power supply. The savings vary depending on the system, load, and electricity costs, but the ROI will typically happen between 6 to 12 months. Add to this a “smart” power strip that turns off peripheral devices when the “master” device is off or in standby, and any “One-Watt Initiative“{{1}} compliant devices (see Vampire Power), and you’re looking at significant savings, especially in the case of a large office space with multiple workstations. Newer computers run cooler and quieter due to better power efficiency and reduced heat, which will cut down on noise pollution in the home or office.

The initial investment in these technologies is minimal, and to conform to their respective standards the devices have excellent build quality and may well last longer than other non-green options. For information regarding smart power strips, you can read articles from BC Hydro here. Of special interest to businesses would be BC Hydro’s “Product Incentive Program” which grants you $7 for each smart power strip and many other devices, which you can read more about here, and see the list of eligible technologies here.

The Energy Star program is the international standard for energy efficient consumer products. The bar is constantly being set higher and higher to reduce energy consumption. Look for the Energy Star label in all consumer products, including many construction materials.

For the more environmentally conscious individual, industry directives such as RoHS aim to reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and others from electronic equipment. Again, compliance with this standard results in superior build quality for devices.

There are green software solutions, too. Instead of running multiple costly servers, consider or outsourcing your infrastructure via cloud computing. With virtualization, you can run multiple “virtual” servers in parallel on the same physical device using software such as VMWare or Microsoft’s Virtual PC or Hyper-V. Added benefits to this and cloud computing include easy backups, system snapshots{{2}}, better uptime and reduced maintenance cost.

I use every opportunity to reduce gas consumption by offering phone support and remote desktop assistance to clients. To take advantage of this service, call me at 250-514-2639 and I will walk you through initiating a remote session. Remote sessions are billed by the minute with no minimum charge. All invoicing is submitted and processed digitally making McLean Consulting virtually paperless.

Please contact McLean Consulting for more information about green computing and how you can benefit.

Edit: I just discovered Microsoft’s Environment site: http://www.microsoft.com/environment/. It features articles and initiatives for more efficient and sustainable IT.

[[1]]The “One Watt Initiative” seeks to reduce standby power consumption in all consumer devices to one Watt, instead of the “power vampires” that needlessly plague homes and businesses today.[[1]]
[[2]]A system snapshot is basically a “saved system state” which you can return to at the click of a button.[[2]]