I visited the Green IT Expo last week! I was part of the Microsoft crew who had an environmental sustainability stand. It was quite intimidating at times due to the abuse that some MS haters were bringing with them but I was quickly reassured by my MS colleagues that this is a regular occurrence when you wear the MS badge. Apart from the haters, it was a great experience to be part of the MS movement.
The Green IT Expo was aimed at businesses and not consumers, so I got to talk to a variety of business people that were also interested in the environment. It did strike me however that a lot of people at the expo were mostly focused upon money saving and using the environment badge as a marketing tool. This didn’t really surprise me, and i kind of agree that to make businesses more environmental we must find ways to make the green movement make money! [Who agrees disagrees??? Comments below pls. :-) ]
Most of the speakers and stands at the expo were focused around power management, something that’s been around for a while now – but surprisingly a lot of people i had spoken to thought it too complicated to set up on PC’s and servers. One of the MS messages was that Windows 7 offers a power saving over Windows Vista! I can vouch for this as my laptop battery now lasts an extra 40ish mins! Amazing!
Overall a useful expo!
Monday, 23 November 2009
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I think with regards to the environment, business always boils down to a balance between cost and reputation. Normally, you have to trade one off against the other, especially in the short term.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the new CRC energy efficiency scheme forms a league table of companies, which, aside from the associated punishments/benefits for ranking low/high on it, sends a strong message of branding out. Some companies will invest in green technology at a loss, because a high league table ranking is important to their brand.
Of course, there are no brainer improvments like energy saving bulbs which pay back very quickly, but longer term investments are always used for bragging rights.
Think for a moment, if you had a heat pump or a solar panel on your roof whether you'd show it off to people who come round? Then think about whether you'd be showing off your boiler instead :)
I think the organisations must pay real money for the amount of CO2 that they generate. For example, on the utility bills of a company the amount of produced CO2 by the company, also, should be shown and the amount of money that the company has to pay for that.
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