CIOs greening the UK IT Sector
February 25, 2008 at 10:18 am (Green Government, Greening Europa)
Computer Weekly talks about some of the simple steps that you can take to save energy, costs and improve efficiencies.
The government’s CIO Council is planning a “green” strategy for the public sector which includes cutting tens of thousands of printers, taking power consumption into consideration when buying PCs, and keeping equipment for up to two years longer.
One of those leading the green initiative is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Defra’s CIO Chris Chant said there has been a dramatic reduction in printers in large offices, from one per eight employees to one for every 15 staff. This cuts buying costs, electricity bills and the amount of equipment that needs to be disposed of, he said.
Defra recently decided to fund centrally only one computing device per employee - usually a thin-client desktop or a laptop. It also discourages docking stations for laptops and thousands of power-hungry CRT monitors have been replaced with flat screens.
We have been doing similar stuff at DFC. The printers have been the biggest surprises with almost 1 printer for every 2 employees in some offices. Some big savings can come out there for DFC.
