Five Easy Ways to Green IT

At Terrabytes we believe that the solution to our current world situations will be made up of a multitude of creative, innovative and thoughtful acts on behalf of individuals and organizations.  When there is no 'silver bullet', getting started can be challenging.  To help organizations get started even with small steps, we recommend the following five easy ways to get started with greening your IT.  If you have questions, please feel free to contact us by filling out the Contact Us form on the left-hand side of this article.

1. Use EPEAT when purchasing new desktops, laptops and monitors
EPEAT (the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) will help you to choose the most environmentally respectful electronic products on the market.  More than 1000 products are registered and aren’t harder on the budget.

For more information about purchasing policies, read the article “Responsible IT Purchasing”

2. Turn off monitors and PCs at night
Turning off your PCs at night can save up to 60% of your IT energy consumption costs. For organizations that need the ability to remotely apply updates overnight, power management solutions are available.

For more information about power management, read the article series on power management solutions.

3. Reduce employee travel by conducting virtual meetings
Air travel is one of the most significant contributions to green house gas emissions.  Virtual meeting services such as GoToMeeting, Webex, and Windows Live Meeting are extremely popular and easy to use and provide an interactive platform for on-line meetings that can reduce that amount of travel for your employees.

4. Reduce paper consumption
The average office employee prints 6,000 pages a year. Printing less can be accomplished in many ways, from simply printing double-sided and using Ecofont, to using services such as EchoSign that allow you to conduct business electronically.

5. Get a Green IT Assessment or Green Office Audit
Establish your baseline and get recommendations that will save energy and money. Knowing your baseline will allow you to measure your efforts and engage employees. Terrabytes Consulting, Strategic Sustainability Consulting and other sustainability-focused service providers offer affordable services no matter how big your organization is.

For more information, read the article

“Why do a Green IT Assessment?”