CeBIT goes green

Tagged with: green it

Added by The Editor, 7 months ago.

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This week sees the annual IT-fest that is CeBIT 2008 - held in Hanover, Germany between 4th and 9th March. All of the major manufacturers and service providers will be there as usual, but this year's event promises a distinct focus on ‘green IT'.

Deutsche Messe - the company responsible for holding CeBIT - has teamed up with The Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) in order to help boost awareness of the critical issue of energy efficient computing at the event.

The CSCI was founded by Google and Intel, and its membership now boasts most of the major names in IT. PC manufacturers - including Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo - will spearhead the CeBIT event by presenting energy-efficient IT products in a special ‘green village'.

CSCI aims to reduce the power consumption of computers - and therefore their CO2 emissions - by 50 per cent by the year 2010, primarily through the use of more efficient components and power management capabilities.

Other CSCI members at the event will be providing Green IT-related content, and participating in a variety of related activities. The theme will also feature prominently in the congress program.

The presence of Greenpeace at the show (by invitation!) is also sure to add an edge. The campaign group has spent months trying to uncover IT manufacturer' use of pollutants and is set to ‘name and shame' guilty parties.

The new emphasis on saving energy and reducing emissions is a welcome initiative at one of the year's most influential IT events. It shows that the industry really is taking its responsibilities seriously, despite the associated costs involved in the necessary changes to the manufacturing process that are required.

It's now time for the world's businesses - large and small - to take their lead.

Comments

There are currently 5 comments about this blog.

Jonathan Evans, 6 months ago

I attended CeBIT this year and there were a number of vendors showcasing their ‘green IT’ products and services. Some of them were really quite innovative – I’m particularly interested in the idea of self-managed devices that get round the problem of humans leaving PC monitors switched on etc. – but inevitably there were a fair few ‘me too’ products. In summary though, I’d say the industry has woken up to the fact that IT managers are looking to use IT more efficiently and if that’s good for the environment, so much the better.

Ashley Ward, 7 months ago

I don't think we need energy-efficient PCs, just a more responsible attitude from users to their energy consumption. I saw a report last year by the Alliance to Save Energy that in the US if every PC for business use was turned off each night (instead of been left on by irresponsible employees), in a year it would save the same amount of CO2 emissions as taking 2.58 million passenger cars off the road entirely for 12 months. There are significant cost and energy savings to be made just through simple, no-cost education initiatives.

Rachel Armstrong, 7 months ago

In response, to Lisa's comment, I understand the cynicism but I think that this is exactly the kind of attitude we need to put to one side for a greater good. Are the manufacturers going to make more sales, or are they going to make exactly the same amount of sales as they do now, but of 'environmentally-friendly' products instead? I think it's just an evolution from one kind of product to a better kind of product. And even if they are to make more money (because the systems are more expensive to manufacture), then that's the cost of saving the planet. I think the manufacturers should be praised for taking the initiative. Being green is also the responsibility of the purchaser/end-user (consumer or corporate) and if it means slightly more expensive products then so be it. Having said that, once everyone is buying green products then the current (small) cost premium for green products will disappear as sale volumes increase.

Lisa Davies, 7 months ago

I don't know whether to be pleased to hear that the IT industry is doing something about the environment or annoyed that they're jumping on the bandwagon in order to sell more products.