Green Computing

In­form­a­tion tech­no­logy has long been an integral part of our lives. And thanks to systems that are becoming in­creas­ingly more efficient, ever larger amounts of data are being trans­ferred in ever shorter time periods. There is no end in sight to this de­vel­op­ment, though it is also closely linked to a negative con­sequence of the digital trans­form­a­tion: Energy con­sump­tion has skyrock­eted in recent years.

Green computing is intended to coun­ter­act this de­vel­op­ment. This term en­cap­su­lates all measures that combine tech­no­lo­gic­al progress with en­vir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion. It means resource-saving tech­no­logy use, as opposed to re­strict­ing digital ap­plic­a­tions.

Green computing’s be­gin­nings go back to the 1990s. At that time the US gov­ern­ment’s En­vir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) announced the En­ergyS­tar label that would be used to identify energy-saving monitors and other IT devices. However, public awareness of green IT only began to emerge in the 2000s, as energy and resource con­sump­tion increased drastic­ally with the spread of the internet and its end devices.

In par­tic­u­lar, climate change and the large media focus on the Fridays for Future movement that emerged in response to the former have made sus­tain­able economic activity a subject of greater focus both polit­ic­ally and socially. The broadest consensus is that humanity must reduce its resource con­sump­tion if future gen­er­a­tions are to continue to have a good quality of life on our planet. And because IT is es­pe­cially resource-intensive, it also takes centre stage in such de­lib­er­a­tions.

According to the Journal of Cleaner Pro­duc­tion  elec­tri­city use by computer centres will increase from 2016 to 2040 to account for more than 14% of all emissions globally. And to date, only a small portion of the energy currently being consumed is generated sus­tain­ably.

Worldwide, in­form­a­tion tech­no­logy is re­spons­ible for ap­prox­im­ately 2 to 3 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, which are the main cause of climate change. A recent study by The Shift Project in France predicted that, given current measured data, digital economy emissions could in fact represent 8 percent of all CO₂ emissions by 2025. As a result, the en­vir­on­ment would be more severely polluted by the IT industry than by cars and mo­tor­cycles.

Because di­git­isa­tion is pro­gress­ing rapidly, there is a high prob­ab­il­ity that the share of emissions will also increase. In order to slow this increase and all of its negative con­sequences, companies and private users must use digital ap­plic­a­tions and devices that are the best in terms of energy-efficient operation and resource-efficient pro­duc­tion.

There are numerous measures that can be used to design the pro­duc­tion, use and disposal of digital tech­no­lo­gies so that it is more sus­tain­able. To this end, both producers and users can con­trib­ute to in­teg­rat­ing the concept of green computing in the most com­pre­hens­ive way possible. This involves the ful­fil­ment of goals such as:

• reducing resource and energy con­sump­tion during hardware man­u­fac­tur­ing
• socially-conscious and fair work con­di­tions for pro­duc­tion
• producing the most long-lasting hardware
• de­vel­op­ing resource-saving software
• reducing energy con­sump­tion in the use of IT
• recycling and energy-saving disposal
• avoiding un­ne­ces­sary hard copies
• im­ple­ment­ing IT to reduce the emissions of other products

For companies, the im­ple­ment­a­tion of green computing can be a com­pet­it­ive factor. After the in­creas­ing raw material and energy prices have also driven up costs for hardware and software, there is an economic interest within many in­dus­tries in creating resource-saving IT struc­tures. Sus­tain­able tech­no­logy fa­cil­it­ates economic growth and ensures jobs.

If the company combines its efforts with green marketing, then both customers and business partners will find out about its sus­tain­able ori­ent­a­tion. This improves the company’s image in the public eye.

However, companies often lack strategic ap­proaches for im­ple­ment­ing green computing. The various measures should for this reason be managed and co­ordin­ated by a person des­ig­nated for this purpose. This is because there are numerous starting points with respect to how green computing can be im­ple­men­ted.

Which hardware a company uses often de­term­ines the pur­chas­ing process. The person re­spons­ible for making purchases should for this reason receive a clear mandate to have a pref­er­ence for en­vir­on­ment­ally-friendly labels. The use of long-lasting hardware is also conducive to sus­tain­ab­il­ity.

Storing ap­plic­a­tions in a cloud via certified computer centres saves far more resources than saving all data on internal company servers. In many sectors, cloud hosting is in any case a better option for companies than their own server.

Even if the use of an external computer centre is not a pos­sib­il­ity for every company division, resources can be saved by sim­pli­fy­ing the IT in­fra­struc­ture through vir­tu­al­iz­ing and cent­ral­ising IT services. Green computing is only possible with a modern IT in­fra­struc­ture.

If employees are able to bring their laptops home with them in order to work at their home office or to replace on-site meetings with video con­fer­ences, it’s true that the tech­no­logy itself won’t be become more sus­tain­able. However, just the way it is used, which elim­in­ates travel, con­trib­utes to a better en­vir­on­ment­al balance for the company.

In daily op­er­a­tions, reducing the volume of paper printouts in par­tic­u­lar is an en­vir­on­ment­ally way for digital tech­no­logy to be utilised. If, as a result, your company switches to paperless processes, then you’ll save printers and/or toner cart­ridges and ul­ti­mately costs as well.

The pre­con­figured standby mode is an important part of saving energy in day-to-day business. On the whole, regularly shutting down computers at the end of the work day also makes a con­sid­er­able dif­fer­ence and all employees should be advised to do so.

Computer, printers and ink cart­ridges should be properly disposed of so that in­di­vidu­al parts can be recycled and used again.

At IONOS en­vir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion and sus­tain­ab­il­ity are a core part of our business strategy. This is reflected in all of our divisions.

All IONOS fa­cil­it­ies in the US are either sourced from renewal sources, offset through cer­ti­fic­ates, or both. The company is also mindful of sus­tain­ab­il­ity when man­u­fac­tur­ing and disposing of hardware. As a result, CO₂ emissions in 2018 were reduced by 143 tons through the recycling of old hardware.

In order to reduce the elec­tri­city demand of our computer centres, we have developed an in­tel­li­gent IT in­fra­struc­ture.

Fur­ther­more, we have had our energy man­age­ment certified in ac­cord­ance with ISO 50001: Energy Man­age­ment Systems. In­de­pend­ent experts on a regular basis inspect our adherence to the cor­res­pond­ing guidelines.