Government Technology

The second Green IT Expo in London provided some encouraging signs for the progress of more sustainable computing practices across the public sector. Several senior figures from the UK government and the European Commission presented key sessions within the two-day educational event and the London Borough of Newham won the event’s coveted award for Green End-User 2009.
    
Despite the economic downturn and significant time/budget constraints across the public and private sectors, hundreds of delegates turned up in November to hear about the latest developments, see new technologies in action and get to grips with the environmental, efficiency and financial benefits of greener IT systems.
    
“With IT budgets in decline and increasing pressure on CIOs to deliver high impact results with less investment, Green IT Expo’s focus on practical solutions, sharing and learning is the ideal place to highlight the quick wins that IT leaders can deploy to provide significant savings and efficiency gains,” said Pat Tiernan, executive director of the WWF’s global Climate Savers Computing Initiative, one of the event’s major supporters. “The current focus on the energy efficiency of computing equipment and deployment of advanced power management techniques is helping organisations to achieve these benefits without the complexity, investment levels and often lengthy timelines that many IT programmes require.”

Dirty ICT
Opening the event each day, internationally recognised expert and founder of the Green ICT Delivery Unit at HM Government’s CIO/CTO Council, Catalina McGregor presented a thought-provoking keynote on ‘Dirty ICT’ – an issue that is fast becoming a major focus for governments around the world. This included an eye-opening video about the devastating environmental and human impact of computer recycling in Third World countries. Pulling no punches, McGregor revealed why the widescale dumping of ICT is still increasing and explained how national governments are asking organisations to tackle this in all new tenders and when contracts are due for renewal. McGregor commented: “So much has changed since last year and everyone needs to be aware of what’s coming next. Hence, Green IT Expo is an excellent way for ICT decision-makers to stay on top of the emerging trends in green technology and evolving CSR policies.”
    
At lunchtime, Chris Chant, CIO for the London 2012 Olympics and Green ICT Portfolio Holder at the CIO/CTO Council, explored the big picture behind the government’s green ICT targets, in a fascinating session entitled “WHY are We Greening Government ICT?” Chant offered some valuable insights into the government’s ambitions for green IT: extending well beyond the achievement of carbon-neutrality for the systems themselves, which is becoming almost inevitable in the short-to-medium term. Eventually, sustainable ICT will be used to transform almost every area of public services through the facilitation of more time, energy, and cost-efficient processes.
 
Low carbon opportunities
At the end of day one, Trevor Hutchings, Head of Low Carbon Economy at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) stood in for David Kidney MP to explain how the government intends to move the UK onto a permanent low-carbon footing; maintaining energy security, protecting the most vulnerable and maximising the economic opportunities that come with that transition. “The challenge for us and every global economy is huge, tantamount to the next industrial revolution,” said Hutchings, “especially given the current economic climate. But it also presents a massive opportunity for UK business – not just for low-carbon sectors, such as renewables, but for all mainstream and traditional businesses as well.” Hutchings went on to detail the range of measures that the government is putting in place to help the UK capture its fair share of the global market for low-carbon environmental goods and services, already estimated to be worth £3 trillion per annum.
    
Other highlights included daily perspectives from the European Commission, presented by Linda Mauperon, Cabinet Member of the European Commissioner for Information Society & Media and Paolo Bertoldi from the EC’s Joint Research Centre/Institute for Energy. Mauperon outlined the major drivers behind the EC’s work on developing a low-carbon society, including adoption of the EC’s recommendation on ICT for energy efficiency and the longer-term vision of how ICT will help to minimise the carbon and energy footprints of the economy and of society as a whole. While Bertoldi presented highlights of the EC’s action for improving the energy efficiency of datacentres and telecoms operations – explaining how future EC initiatives in this area are expected to tie into the latest directives on emission reductions.

Green IT Expo Awards
Meanwhile, at the Green IT Expo Awards 2009, presented at the end of the first day, London Borough of Lewisham was honoured with the Green End User Award while computer manufacturer, Lenovo, was presented with the Green Supplier Award.
    
The Green End User Award is presented to an end-user organisation which has shown outstanding commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its systems. London Borough of Lewisham was recognised for negotiating a free-of-charge contract for the recycle of all its redundant ICT equipment. The innovative arrangement with IT recycling and asset disposal company, ICEX, works within all current legislation and EU guidelines for data erasure and certification of destruction, paving the way for other local authorities to follow suit with similar schemes.
    
Accepting the award for London Borough of Lewisham, IT Client and Policy Manager (Technology & Transformation Division), Michelle Ouzman said: “Lewisham wants to promote and move forward with the government’s ICT Green Roadmap and winning this award will help us focus on ROI with Green ICT initiatives. The award reflects the great work we have been doing with our partner ICEX, as well as the fact that we have been working hard for seven years now with sustainability in mind. It will help highlight to our internal stakeholders that zero cost for recycle and disposal of ICT has contributed to budget saving over a long period of time.”
    
As winners of the Green Supplier Award, Lenovo was recognised for its efforts to engineer personal computers that offer ultra-green performance. The innovative computer hardware manufacturer was praised for the high level of attention to environmental issues across its entire product range – in particular its groundbreaking ThinkVision monitors, which all meet the latest Energy Star 5.0 standard, plus the World’s first TCO Edge Monitor, the L2251x Wide.
    
Andrew Barrow, Western Europe Desktop and Monitor Business Unit Director at Lenovo, commented: “Lenovo is delighted to accept this award, which recognises our endeavour to show the industry what organisations can do in a commercial capacity to reduce the environmental impact they have, especially in terms of reducing power consumption and materials used.”
    
Overall, Green IT Expo 2009 had a distinctly upbeat feel to the two days, with delegates, sponsors and speakers all reporting a far greater level of understanding of the key issues than last year – and a significant amount of progress expected to be made over the next twelve months.
    
Next year, many of the key themes from Green IT Expo will be incorporated into a brand new event called ‘IT Decisions 2010’ taking place in the NEC’s Pavilion on 23rd & 24th June 2010 – so put the dates in your diary now!

For more information
For more information and a video of Green IT Expo 2009 visit: www.greenitexpo.com

For more information on IT Decisions 2010 please visit: www.itdshow.com