FEATURE: GREEN NETWORKING
S
upply chain
Look at any large company
and you will find they have
publically embraced the need for a
“green” policy. For some, that is a
real statement of intent, for others
it is driven by a marketing team that
realise customers are beginning to
make ethical choices.
represents. The same is true of the
rest of the business. Facility teams are
not generally interested in the carbon
footprint created by each vehicle they
purchase. Instead, the enterprise is
focused on what it can control, its own
carbon footprint.
One of the ways that many companies
can make quick gains around their
green credentials is in the supply
chain. Not everything, for example, can
be green. If you are commissioning
data centres or new distribution
centres, you have to use concrete.
According to industry figures, that
could mean that every tonne of
concrete releases 410kg/m3 of CO2e. That, however, is changing. Vendors
such as Brand-Rex are now talking
openly about the carbon footprint of
some of their products. This means
that enterprise customers can begin
to factor into their supply chain, the
carbon footprint of the products they
purchase. It is a major step forward for
any company that wants to understand
its ethical and environmental
responsibilities and the first time any
major IT vendor has done this.
It is not just concrete that is the
problem. Few CIOs want to know what
the carbon footprint of each server,
switch, hard drive, cabinet, printer
or other part of the IT infrastructure Examples of green project investments
include a hydro-dam project in
Turkey where the power for purifying
copper is generated - plus a project
to improve transportation energy-
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efficiencies through the introduction of
regenerative braking technology. These
two projects, along with other carbon
reduction measures - such as pulp
inserts, reduced manufacturing plant
conversion energy and un-bleached
boxes - helped Brand-Rex lower its
products carbon footprint by over 1000
tonnes in a year.
Such investments and savings might
not be applicable for every customer.
What they do enable customers to
know is that that they are buying from
a carbon sensitive company. Such
a move plays well in the corporate
environmental impact space.
So how does this translate into the
enterprise or data centre network?
Inside the data centre and
comms room
Can savings be made in the
network? The answer is yes, plenty!
They start with simple things such
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