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 center stage in such de­lib­er­a­tions.

According to the Journal of Cleaner Pro­duc­tion  elec­tric­i­ty use by computer centers 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 dig­i­ti­za­tion 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 ful­fill­ment 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 centers 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 center is not a pos­si­bil­i­ty for every company division, resources can be saved by sim­pli­fy­ing the IT in­fra­struc­ture through vir­tu­al­iz­ing and cen­tral­iz­ing 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 utilized. 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 centers, 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.