Green IT Solution for your Organisation

1. How Green is India Inc.?

2. Green IT is a buzzword in the West and
has
already progressed beyond the „hype‟
stage, as is evident from the kind of work
and research that is happening on that
front.
“ India Inc. wakes to Green IT ”

3. Awareness of Green IT
• 69% of the respondents fairly encouraging
as close to admitted that they were aware
of the Green IT.
• The awareness levels were higher in the
MNCs with some 77% admitting to know
about the issue.
• It is interesting to note the high awareness
levels among the PSUs, some 76% of them
said that they were of Green IT.
• Another interesting thing to note is that the
awareness levels was the highest among
the companies with annual revenues of Rs.
50-100 crore, around 79%. Big companies,
with annual revenues of over Rs. 500 crore,
came next.

4. Green IT Awareness
In fact when the companies were asked to
rank the importance of Green IT, as most
important, very important, important and
little important. Most of them chose „very
important‟, followed by an even split
between „most important‟ and „important‟.
This again underlines the above finding,
that even when companies are aware of the
green issues, they are not sure how
pertinent it is for them.

5. Motivation for Green IT initiative
• In a rapidly developing economy like India,
environment and social responsibility usually take a
back seat to issues like growth and scale up. But, with
burgeoning growth and crumbling infrastructure,
organizations have realized that they need to achieve
high productivity from the same or even lesser
resources. This has led to better utilization of
technology and this is also evident from the high
number of respondents.
• Some 78%, claiming that reducing costs is the biggest
motivating factor for going green. It is obvious that with
the increasing costs of resources, most importantly
power and real estate, the CIO seems to have taken on
some of the responsibilities of the CFO as well. And
this is the very area where Green IT scores, it is not
merely a way to green but a healthy one.

6. • Yet again, on this issue as well, it is the PSUs that steal the limelight, with
some 83% claiming that reducing costs is the primary motivation. This is
quite interesting as for long, PSUs have been painted as a jaded and
opulent enterprises, where monetary concerns are the last thing on the
mind of a CIO. That is certainly not the case anymore. Meanwhile the MNCs
also seemed to be keen on Green IT to create an environment-friendly
workplace, some 41% described as a big motivator, though this was the
lowest concern for the PSUs.
• But, wait a minute even with the obsession to cut down on costs; the
organizations have not lost sight of their larger role. As environmental
issues and corporate social responsibility were the 2nd and 3rdmotivating
factor for Green IT, with compliance and corporate image being tied on the
4th place. Thus, it will be a fallacy for someone to debunk environmental
concerns, while there is little doubt that even as money is the primary mover
for Green IT, organizations are no less concerned about the environmental
impact.

7. Perceptions on Green
• Well, it was heartening to know that a vast majority of Indian enterprises both from
the private sector to the public sector were aware about the need to go green, and
attached fairly high importance to it. But, what exactly is Green IT? Is it putting new
blade servers in the data centre?
• Thus through this two-pronged approach, we were able to decipher as to what the
respondents instinctively believed to be Green IT and what they reasoned to be
Green IT. The basic idea behind this technique was to arrive at what really
constituted as green at these organizations.

8. • On listing the top 5 perceptions from the two,
one gets an interesting story. Energy
efficiency is at the top of the mind of the
organizations. When unaided, in fact 3 of the
top 5 perceptions relate to power
management of the PCs, the next two things
is to reduce server power and e-waste
management.

10. PC/Laptop Power
Management
• Power management on the PC/laptop end is
undoubtedly at the very basic of green. Any
implementation of green within the organization usually
starts from this end, as PCs are configured to go to
sleep mode, or users are asked to switch off the
desktops and monitors when they leave from work. The
advanced steps on the same front, is to install power
management software and promotion of CFD
techniques for energy efficiency.
• Within the group as well, there is not much difference
in the way MNCs, private limited companies or PSUs
have undertaken power management steps. The same
is indicative that the organizations are currently starting
off on their green journey, and in the near future at least
there will be much awareness in terms of power
management at the user level, at least. Once that is in
place, companies will be able to move to the next level
that is using CFD techniques for energy mapping, etc.

11. Managing E-waste
• One of the biggest issues plaguing India is that of management of e-
waste. Much of the problem arises from the fact that a lot of developed
countries dump their electronic waste in India, creating a bio hazard. But
that does not take away the fact that India itself is now generating a lot of
electronic waste. Outdated PCs and peripherals are usually dumped at
local junkyard, and new machines are brought in.
•On being queried on the issue, a lot many organizations mentioned that
they were in the process of going in for e-waste take back agreement with
IT vendors. But the worrying fact is that close to 40% haven‟t given the
matter much thought or don‟t have any plans to implement it. This
negative figure rises as we move further, with over 60% saying that they
haven‟t thought or just won‟t tie-up with NGOs or e-waste companies for
processing the waste. And in-house recycling of hardware is also
something that is not on the top of the agenda, with close to 46% falling in
the negative band.
•This is a worrying trend, as it indicates that not many organizations are
paying attention to the issue, especially when you consider it in the Indian
perspective. Also the fact that there are no rules and regulations relating
to the same might be another factor that plays a role in this context.
Looking at the scenario now, one is certain that outward looking
companies, namely IT service companies and BPO are the ones that
seem to have woken to the issues, whereas domestic companies still
seem to the ignorant of the same. Hopefully, that will change once there is
some legislation on that front in the near future.

12. Data center and server
management
• Data centers as have been mentioned time and again in
different features carried in our magazine and other studies, are
big guzzlers of power. A major chunk of this power is spent on
cooling the servers. Thus there are different aspects of data
center management that an organization can look into for greater
efficiency.
• On looking at the results, there seems to be fair understanding
and movement on this front. Again this could be borne out of the
result of the constant bombardment of the same by the hardware
vendors that often tout their wares under the green garb. Without
doubt, much attention has been paid on this issue by the
hardware vendors, and this could be the reason that it features
prominently.
• PSUs continue to maintain a clear lead when it comes to
implementation of technologies around datacenter, in fact close
to 48% have already virtualized their servers, which is pretty high
when compared to 29% by MNC firms and 20% of private
companies.

13. The coming of Green
Buildings
• Buildings are one of the most dubious aspect of green, as they
are passive and hence don‟t seem to be pollutants and yet
according to international reports account for close to 8% of
global emissions. The „glass dabbas‟ (how RK Pachauri refers to
them) are much cause of concern as they require immense
cooling, thereby resulting in excess spending of energy on
HVAC. Fortunately, over the years there has been much
progress on that front, thanks to all those LEED rated buildings
and complexes that are coming up across the length and breadth
of India.
• Nonetheless, while there is a lot of talk around nowadays of
going carbon neutral or even climate neutral, this is certainly not
on the immediate horizon of Indian companies, as over 60%
haven‟t given much thought or won‟t be doing anything about it.
Still, as we move forward as a nation and inevitably have to take
carbon emissions caps, etc. the numbers will rise. And surely the
37% that are already monitoring the carbon footprint or in the
process of doing so, will inspire others to do so.

14. Vendor issues
• In advanced countries, a lot of premium is
attached to green products, but that is
certainly not the case in India yet. Much of
the decisions on purchase of equipment
still seems to be driven by the cost factor.
And as much as 50% of the organizations
said that they would not be giving any
premiums to green product suppliers. This
is also evident from the fact that over 70%
mentioned cost as the biggest challenge in
sourcing green products.

15. • It is the PSUs that for the first real time
seem to be dragging their feet on this issue
and dont seem to have woken up to the
new reality, with over 56% listing in the
negative band. The big reason could be
the fact that much of the contracts are still
awarded in the archaic tendering method,
that favors the lowest bidder. Hopefully,
since a lot of the PSUs are also looking to
earn money through the means of CDM,
etc. they would have to pay attention to this
aspect as well.
• One of the indicators of the change is the
%age of budgetary allocation for Green IT
with close to 70% mentioning that they are
allocating over 5% of their IT budgets to
make Green IT related purchases.

16. Engaging the employee
• Engaging the employee is one of the most important
aspects of growing green, as unless the employee is
not motivated or aware of his responsibilities not much
changes can take place. While traditionally, Indian
enterprises have been rather staid in engaging the
employees on such issues, be it green or even CSR.
But the trend seems to be changing, as quite a few of
the companies admit to be paying attention to the need
to engage the employees.
• Internationally, green is being merged into the CSR
objective, as companies of the like of Google, Dell, GM,
Microsoft and others talking about the ecological impact
of their operations. Indian firms have been traditionally
shy of CSR, more akin to talk about corporate
philanthropy, but over 40% of the companies are indeed
looking at green from the CSR perspective, maybe they
are taking the cue from international firms.

17. Other things Green
• Beyond all these, there are a lot of things and aspects
that fall under the green ambit. There are a host of
issues that are responsible for a company to go green,
one of the biggest trend noticed in India is that still
green usually comes from the top. The firms and
companies that are adopting green in a major ways, are
using doing so at the behest of the passionate head
honcho, one of the most obvious example is that of
Wipro and Infosys. Even though, TCS is the largest IT
firm in India, it hasn‟t really adopted green like the other
two, simply because the mandate needs to come from
the top. That is also the case with quite many firms in
India, unless it comes from the top not much happens
otherwise.
• Another heartening fact is that there is an increasing
levels of awareness about green standards within the
corporate sector. As many of the companies are
obsessed with cutting costs, Energy Star seems to be
the most popular ones, but there is still a long way to go
as close to a quarter of the correspondents stated that
they were unaware of any of the green standards.

18. Mars Vapours Green IT
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Our Green IT Solutions include:
 Green IT Audit
 Helps understand where organizations stand w.r.t Green standards
 Green IT Consulting
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 Implement s and Manages Green IT
 ISO 14001 Energy Management Consulting
 Helps organizations achieve Energy Management Standards

19. Green IT Audit
 Our Green IT Audit helps organizations understand where they
stand, in terms of being “Green”. It includes
 IT Carbon foot print
 Office & Data Center survey
 Employee Carbon foot print
 IT equipment audit
 Commute Carbon foot print
 Employee survey
 Benchmarking against ISO standards
 Roadmap for sustainable growth
Our Green IT Audit :
 Helps identify areas of improvement in terms of cost reduction
 Helps understand the IT and organization Carbon foot print
 Gauges employee awareness and outlook towards sustainability
 Provides recommendations and roadmap to reduce Carbon foot print and overall costs
without sacrificing quality and availability of services

20. In Conclusion
• Any major feat cannot be accomplished in isolation. Similarly,
it is to our scores of readers, to whom we are indebted for
guiding and appreciating the green cudgel picked up by us. At
the risk of sounding pompous, 67% of the respondents of this
survey (that by the way represent the whos who of India Inc.)
stated that they liked the green coverage in the magazine and
found it worthwhile. That is really a big pat on the back.
• It does not take a prophet to know that the road ahead is
indeed green. Through choice or compulsion, Indian Inc. will
have to adopt green measures in the years to come.
Fortuitously, the year 2008, in which we keenly started
focussing on green, was designated the International year of
Planet Earth. And now, as we are into 2009, let‟s paint it
green and dub it the Year of Green IT.

21. Data References :- http://greenitindia.com