Greening Government ICT – Efficient, Sustainable, Responsible

“No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little”. I am sure that the Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke (1729-1797) did not have the UK Government’s Green IT Agenda in mind when he articulated this thought. However I think the ethos of his observation is very apposite to the advice in the Cabinet Office paper on Greening Government ICT. **

When you examine the 18 recommendations for ICT carbon reduction in Appendix B of the report it is heartening to see that many of the suggestions relate to individual actions that anyone can take with both their work and home PCs. Advice such as ‘shut down PCs after office hours’ may seem blindingly obvious but, even back in 2006 (when energy was comparatively cheap) the National Energy Foundation calculated that each PC left switched on overnight cost £70 in energy per year.

The Microsoft environment site has published today new information on power management features in Vista and a free download of Edison PC power management utility that anyone can use on a home PCs to control your PC’s energy consumption — and subsequently your household’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

As a certain large retailer says (possibly paraphrasing Mr Burke? ) – every little helps.

Posted by Ian