Although based in South Africa and Australia, our services engagement model is deigned to be delivered anywhere, leveraging low carbon technology such as web and teleconferencing where appropriate.  This provides our global customers with access to a low cost, highly skilled consultancy arm, geared to deliver a sustainable computing strategy anywhere on the planet.

IT Footprinter^TM , a unique offering from sustainableIT delivers a carbon footprint of the IT service based on the globally recognised Greenhouse Gas Protocol accounting standard, thus allowing you to integrate the output with your broader CSR reporting initiatives.

IT Analyser^TM is an in-depth assessment of the IT service from procurement through to disposal of assets, based on Industry best practice and intellectual capital developed by sustainableIT.  IT Transformer^TM takes the engagement full circle to assist you in developing a sustainable computing strategy.

Services are delivered remotely but on occasion, on-site visits have been costed into the solution for our clients.

From a technology perspective we represent 1E in Africa as their distributor as well as market and support the product set.  Being part of 1E’s global sales engine, we can assist you with your requirement wherever you are located.

Contact us to learn more.

For many companies that are supposedly “going green”, changing the light bulbs is where it starts and ends and this lack of continuous commitment leads to significant energy waste and unnecessary costs.

Powering off PC’s overnight remains the number one priority for ICT departments when it comes to sustainable IT, the challenge is to make sure that the solution is enterprise ready and meets the needs of the business concerned.

Tim James, CEO of local consultancy sustainableIT, highlights that the failures of power management strategies are a direct result of the lack of understanding around the complexities and requirements of an enterprise power management solution.  “Most tools, including Active Directory, rely on operating system inactivity to place workstations into a lower power state.  The reality is that power management is not a one size fits all and a successful power management strategy relies on a combination of standby, shutdown and hibernate policies”, James states.

“We see many customers that have tried standby and hibernate strategies, using either group policy or other toolsets.  The result in that certain applications do not transition effectively into standby which often leads to issues elsewhere in the infrastructure such as application failures and database corruptions.  When IT departments realise these issues, the standby policies are immediately removed and are never revisited”, James elaborates.

Building blocks to success

A successful solution is one that requires little administrative overhead and enhances the delivery of the IT service, whilst delivering measurable savings at the same time.  James points to 5 key ingredients for a successful enterprise solution; namely accurate reporting, flexibility in shutdown approach, no end user impact, the ability to resolve PC Insomnia as well as secure wake-on-lan.

PC Insomnia

A fundamental problem with standby based solutions is that as much as 25% of the estate may not transition to a lower power state due to a phenomenon known as PC insomnia.  What happens under the covers is that certain processes keep the operating system ‘awake’ despite the fact that the machine is idle, resulting in no sleep or hibernate and wasted energy; classic insomnia.  Any PC power management solution must have the ability to address and resolve this issue or an organisation is just leaving money on the table.

Wake-on-lan

James believes the failures of wake on lan in a secure network is often mistakenly the main reason why power management is not adopted.  Without the ability to wake machines for out of hour’s maintenance, IT departments will simply not power off.  “An enterprise power management solution should provide wake on lan out of the box with no network changes required, if it doesn’t it is not worth the investment” James concludes.

As the pain of energy increases becomes more apparent, coupled with a growing requirement to reduce CO2 emissions, it remains to be seen whether IT departments start to manage their device up time in the appropriate manner.

This is according to Jean Cox-Kearns, who leads the Dell Take Back Organisation for the EMEA region.
She explains that a lot of recycling infrastructure in SA has been focused on general waste, such as plastic and paper, but not enough investment is being made in the development of infrastructure to facilitate recycling of computers, mobile phones and ink cartridges.

Cox-Kearns indicates that in SA currently lacks infrastructure to facilitate e-waste recycling. “Recycling infrastructure cannot be sustained without the volume of e-waste to encourage recyclers to set-up facilities in these countries,” she notes.

During a sustainable marketing conference recently held in Sandton, Cox-Kearns pointed out that there has been growing interest among global IT vendors to invest in e-waste recycling programmes.
Cox-Kearns indicated that more needs to be done around awareness and education programmes to incentivise business and consumers to recycle used and old electronics.

She said the problem of e-waste is a challenge that needs to be solved via public and private partnerships. “The government has asked industry to recommend a solution rather than government just implementing a solution by itself.”

“Africa is the number one continent where e-waste is being shipped in disguised as reusable equipment.
“Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria are getting an influx of e-waste and are trying to manage it. The problem is that a lot of poor families depend on informal recycling as a living. They burn old computers to try and get the copper. The IT industry as a whole needs to look for ways to bring that into a formal recycling environment, but also to protect the incomes of these families.”

“We are working with other companies and schools to facilitate open dialogue in the industry and Dell’s goal is to propose solutions to the SA government to manage e-waste and investing in recycling infrastructure.

Africa a dumping ground

Tim James, founder of SustainableIT, explains that the biggest stumbling block in the control of e-waste is poor communication. “SA, as the economic hub of Africa, should be taking the lead in terms of e-waste.

James agrees with Cox-Kearns, adding that Africa has become a dumping ground for e-waste.

“A lot of companies think that donating PCs through their social responsibility initiatives is a good way to get rid of their old equipment. The reality is that their equipment is often not fit for use for charities and disadvantaged communities and ends up on a dumping ground anyway.”

James indicates that the Waste Management Act that was promulgated in March last year does not deal with the e-waste problem effectively. He calls for more to be done from government.

Lacking legislation

Keith Anderson, chairman of the e-Waste Association of SA (eWasa), says that SA is far behind Europe in terms of e-waste legislation and does not meet the same European standards in recycling initiatives.

“In the EU, the total weight of electronic appliances dumped in 2005 was 9.3 million tonnes and the figure is growing. Our market is far smaller than that, but it’s still a problem because a lot of global companies are sending computer donations into Africa, particularly in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya.”

Anderson explains that a more holistic solution is needed. Anderson recently visited the Nigerian government to help educate people on ways to curb e-waste. He says the government is linking to change legislation in terms of how computer donations are accepted.

“Some companies think they are doing good by donating computers, but they are actually adding to the problem.” He says a solution to this problem lies in tracking of the equipment.

eWasa is currently involved in an initiative that monitors and tracks electronic goods that are donated to charities from collection point until the end of the machine’s lifecycle where it will be safely recycled.

According to Anderson, currently there is no exact figure on the amount of e-waste that is being generated in SA nor the effect it is having on landfills and the environment. However, eWasa is currently busy with a research project to put together an e-waste estimate in SA.

eWasa defines e-waste as electronic waste that includes ICT equipment, consumer electronics and household appliances. According to the association e-waste contains both valuable and potentially hazardous materials.
According to a landmark report released this year by the United Nations Environment Programme, ‘Recycling – from e-waste to resources’, found that by 2020 in SA and China, e-waste from old computers will have jumped by 200% to 400% from 2007 levels, and by 500% in India.

Alex Kayle, IT Web 15 October 2010

Green IT may be on everyone’s lips, but it’s not yet made it onto their `To do’ lists.

 Green IT has been one of the hot topics for at least the past three years in South Africa, and several years more than that in Europe.

Yet no one seems to be doing green. Anecdotal evidence from interviewees seems to back this up. As HP country manager, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, Manoj Bhoola notes: “We’re not aware of any companies that can claim and put their name behind the fact that they are fully green in their IT organisations. A lot of companies have done a lot of work but I don’t think anyone has reached the end goal.”

Some haven’t even started yet. Says Sustainable IT head Tim James: “I think it’s going to be legislation around carbon emissions that will make people start doing it. No one is going to get points for doing it when they don’t have to, but some companies have realised the marketing opportunity and cost saving potential now and will do it. Then there’s the energy aspect. This is where we see people starting to pay attention. A new electricity price hike has been announced and we’re going to see people get serious because of it, especially guys with big bills. It has be a business thing, it can’t just be an IT thing.”

That really is the point. As BCX CTO Andy Brauer states: “The problem is it’s a whole way of life and philosophy that has to become part of the value chain in order to be meaningful. It’s very difficult for emerging countries, which are largely coal-based, to have a green view. Yes, they are contributing – but is it as much as volcanoes? Or the US, which has some 200 million cars driving around every day?”

A matter of perspective

Africa as a whole contributes less than four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions*. South Africa contributes 65 percent of Africa’s* and 1.5 percent of the world’s* carbon dioxide emissions. According to Gartner**, the ICT industry is responsible for roughly two percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

“And how responsible is IT really for carbon emissions?” Brauer asks. “In the process of making it yes, but using it? When there’s no electricity, everyone’s diesel generators kick in, which is counter-active to green, for example.”

Brauer’s point is possibly more to do with people thinking about these things versus blindly accepting what’s published by press and analysts as ‘the truth’.

Conversely, or perhaps ironically, as BT country manager Keith Matthews points out: “IT and telecoms organisations have been leading the way in showing how environmental and commercial needs can be aligned. One of the reasons this sector has led the way is that they found they can calculate their carbon impact with relative ease, since most of their emissions come from running their networks.”

Cost calculations

Driving green initiatives of late, and particularly in South Africa where power has been unreliable since early 2008, is the cost factor. Says Matthews: “In a world of high oil prices, it makes hard-nosed financial sense to reduce energy usage. Governments and pressure groups will not let companies or consumers forget their responsibility for protecting the environment, while also seeking financial gain. The winners in the next economic upturn will be those corporations that embraced sustainability as a framework to drive financial success during the downturn.

“People and companies who think sustainability is merely a fair weather exercise have been missing the point all along. When times are tough, the onus on every business is to save money, protect and build revenues and make sure core business assets are being fully utilised. Running your business in a sustainable way can be a key driver when it comes to meeting your goals – not just when times are tough, but actually because they are tough.

“Just because times are tough doesn’t mean customers have altered their behaviour,” he adds.

There’s more to going green than just reducing energy usage, however. Says Citrix country manager Nick Keene: “Recycling of ageing IT equipment, procurement from green suppliers, and so on, the entire strategy has not been embarked on totally, but selectively around the need to save money and reduce power consumption because there’s no power to be had. There’s a lot to be done and South Africa’s commitment recently (to reduce carbon emissions by 34 percent by 2020***) will start putting pressure on organisations to do so.

“The only way to achieve that is by starting to put the necessary procedures and policies in place.”

And while no one is being penalised yet, fines could be put in place faster than some organisations would like to think. “One of the biggest things that is likely to come out of the UN Climate Change Conference (when the climate treaty gets signed in Mexico at the end of year) is trade tariffs against carbon intensity of goods, i.e. a fine is likely to be added to the cost of high carbon-intensive goods. Businesses here will be penalised.”

A recently released report by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) says that local climate change laws could be implemented by 2012.

And King III is already in effect. It says that: “IT governance should focus on four key areas: Strategic alignment with the business and collaborative solutions, including the focus on sustainability and the implementation of ‘green IT’ principles; Value delivery: concentrating on optimising expenditure and proving the value of IT; Risk management: addressing the safeguarding of IT assets, disaster recovery and continuity of operations; Resource management: optimising knowledge and IT infrastructure.”

Means and opportunity

Motive, means and opportunity exist for organisations to go green and make a difference to the planet. That the motive for most of them will be cost savings, or even profit, is neither here nor there, despite what some critics says. That it is done is what’s important, particularly as it becomes more expensive not to comply.