The A to Z of green IT

Kilowatts

The amount of energy used to power PCs, networks and servers continues to climb - and IT departments are coming under more pressure to control that.

Green IT from A to Z

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A is for Abroad
B is for Blades
C is for Carbon footprint
D is for Data centres
E is for Energy sources
F is for Freecycle
G is for Government
H is for Homeworking
I is for Ice caps
J is for Jobs (Steve)
K is for Kilowatts
L is for Landfill
M is for Mercury
N is for Nanogeneration
O is for Offsetting
P is for Paperless office
Q is for Queen
R is for Recycling
S is for SmartPlanet.com
T is for Travel
U is for Upgrade
V is for Virtualisation
W is for WEEE
X is for Xmas
Y is for You
Z is for Zero emissions

And while the cost of the hardware itself might be declining, the cost of running it has gone up - and according to silicon.com's CIO Jury the cost of powering hardware may be greater than buying it in the first place.

Lazy employees who leave their PCs on overnight are at least partly to blame, with each PC costing their company £70 per year according to one set of figures - and additional carbon dioxide emissions across the UK equivalent to the output of 120,000 4x4 cars.

But at least one council is fighting back - Peterborough City Council will cut the running costs of its PC infrastructure by £50,000 and reduce CO2 emissions by one metric tonne per year by centrally shutting down every PC at night. It estimates 30 per cent of its PCs are currently being left on overnight and at weekends.

Also, the Eco-design for Energy Using Products Framework Directive is an EU legislation which came into effect in 2005 to try and counter such waste by creating a series of efficiency standards for electrical equipment.

And more recently, Windows Vista - the latest OS from the Microsoft fold - launched with the nifty ability of detecting if a computer is inactive and automatically switching it to sleep mode when needed.