As often as we talk about how much greening a company’s data centre can save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there aren’t that many resources that offer a step-by-step approach to really tackling the issue. Terrabytes Consulting’s new online Green IT Guide fills that gap quite successfully.

Aimed squarely at the small to medium-sized business, the 58-page guide describes a five-phase approach to managing your IT assets:
1. Create a project charter.
2. Do an assessment of your current situation.
3. Implement energy-saving practices across the organization.
4. Communicate your practices and goals.
5. Measure your progress.

The purpose of the project charter is to better understand what your organization is trying to achieve in its efforts. Is it about overall reduction in electricity consumption? A contribution to corporate social responsibility? Capturing tax and utility rate benefits of green initiatives? Creating some boundaries around goals is also a useful exercise.

The assessment piece asks organizations to review their green IT practices areas, such as policies and performance; asset management; energy consumption; and enabling green business. This last point refers to issues such as paper and toner use, and the total maintenance cost for printing devices.  This section also outlines some suggestions for support metrics.

The bulk of the report is focused on phase three of the approach — implementing energy-saving and green practices. These include - in the policies and performance practices area, for instance - implementing responsible purchasing policies; formalizing electronic recycling; and integrating environmental performance into employee performance reviews. The section goes through a detailed list of suggestions for the four green IT practice areas outlined in the assessment piece of the guide. Not only does it offers suggestions of how to approach each issue outlined, it also offers a number of other resources, with fully linked website addresses, where readers can find more detailed information.

This section of the guide ultimately outlines 17 effective Green IT Actions, which gives the reader a useful checklist of what they may already be exploring and what will likely become important issues in the future.

The communication section will probably be what stands out as the most useful for IT executives. Most IT executives I’ve dealt with are great at understanding what is possible with their equipment, but getting the rest of the company to understand the work that they are doing to support the organization isn’t half as easy. This is a short section of the guide but, again, probably a very important piece for any IT department. And again, it includes a number of external references that will be welcome additional in-depth information.

As mentioned at the outset, this is a resource for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s likely much more useful for these companies, which are growing and developing gradually, introducing new policy as they mature. It offers a nice, straightforward, step-by-step approach to greening an IT department that, if followed methodically, will be sure to improve how an organization’s IT resources are used and understood by everyone in an organization.

The Guide can be purchased on its own or as part of the Green IT Guide and Toolkit. The toolkit includes:
 
The Green IT Measurement workbook. This workbook contains six (6) spreadsheets to capture data you collect and calculate the totals. The Measurement Workbook offers: single source for data capture, built-in formulas for yearly consumption totals, support for two collection methods (manual and specification-based), and resources for estimates .
 
The Green IT Performance workbook has four (4) spreadsheets included. This workbook contains spreadsheets where you will take the results of the measurements recorded in the Green IT Measurement workbook and create a baseline against many performance metrics.  The Performance Workbook offers: quick roll-up of details from measurement workbook, built-in formulas for standard performance metrics (e.g. IT energy consumption per employee), and three reporting periods to show trends.
 
Sample presentation about green IT, to help educate your organization. The Presentation offers: A quick template with green IT Information, easy to fill in your Assessment results, and images and diagrams customizable to your organization.
 
Eight reference white papers:
1.       Developing Standards and Initiatives
2.       Green IT Opportunities
3.       Implementing Green IT
4.       Lean, Green and Sustainable IT
5.       Responsible IT Purchasing
6.       Sustainability and Small Business
7.       The Business Case for Sustainability
8.       Waste and Disposal of Equipment

If there’s one thing lacking in the Guide, it’s actual case studies of how other companies have managed the process of making their IT greener. The creators at Terrabytes Consulting tell me that they’re looking to add this in the next version. In some ways, I prefer this streamlined version — it gets to the heart of what you need to do — but having a case study or two at the end of each section would obviously offer a little context to the discussion.

The Green IT Guide and Toolkit is available for purchase at Terrabytes’s informational website GreenITTools.com, or by emailing info@terrabytesconsulting.com. The Guide is 50 per cent off until the end of August.
 

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