Greenhouse Gas (GHC) emissions, in particular CO2, are now widely recognized as the most significant external environmental damage cost of any industry. Over the last 250 years the CO2 levels released into the atmosphere have increased from 280 to 379 parts per million (2005 data).

Organisations need to take a holistic view when considering how to reduce their carbon footprint, as it's not just IT, but also electricity generation, water, travel, and so on, but we will focus on the IT issue, in this article.

In practical terms, the areas to concentrate your organisation's initial review should be:

• Electricity usage
• Printing and paper costs (including disposal)
• Equipment Recycling

Power Usage

Electricity usage can be reduced by turning devices off when not being used. It sounds simple but there are many organizations where PCs and laptops are left unattended for hours and not used, and in some cases left on over weekends. This adds significantly to GHG.

There are software products available today that monitor PC and laptop usage and will shut down devices which are not in use. This software will pay for itself very quickly and also help the environment. Overseas organizations have highlighted savings of approximately $25 per device per annum and a 5% drop in power consumption.

Printing

In relation to printing and paper costs, there are significant savings to the environment and business costs by introducing a policy of duplex (double sided) printing for all documents. There are software products that question users before documents, to stop unnecessary printing. This saves trees, paper, ink cartridges and disposal costs and also reduces landfill. It is estimated by hardware manufactures that most organizations would save at least six pages per day per employee if these measures were implemented.

Hardware

The third measure to save on GHGs is rationalization and consolidation of hardware equipment. Many organizations run numerous IT servers for each different application. When reviews have been undertaken for capacity planning we have discovered that some servers are running at only 20% capacity and therefore there are opportunities to consolidate servers.

The newer hardware technologies have split processors and blade servers/disk servers (SANS) for efficiency and built in redundancy. These devices are more energy efficient and save on rack space as well. Fewer servers in your organization will reduce electricity consumption on cooling and powering such devices.

Organisations that have moved down this path have reduced power consumption by 25% and weight loading by 52%.

Recycling Equipment

The final area is recycling and disposal of IT equipment. Most organizations have an IT policy renewal of three years, so what happens to the old equipment? Most end up in landfill either as complete units or discarded parts.

Organisations are turning to their suppliers to buy from only those companies that have a recycling or disposal policy that saves the environment, or provides reuse. In turn, customers when looking at organizations for their products and services are now reviewing their suppliers' environmental policy to ensure it complies with their own.

Technology is moving towards upgrading components within hardware rather than full replacement.

There are still other areas within IT that organizations can work on to make further GHG savings and improve efficiency.

The actions noted above will help an organization achieve a significant improvement in CO2 emissions, save the organization money and provide efficiency improvements for employees.

Now that the government has revealed its carbon values through its green paper, there are no more excuses for business to wait.

Companies that lack clear leadership on carbon risk need to assess their barriers for change. They also need to consider their supply chain, as any attempt to enhance reputation and revenues through climate change response may be jeopardized by weak links upstream or downstream in the supply chain.

Working with suppliers, a business can also reduce greenhouse gases embedded in its purchases.

Business needs to find out the future preferences of strategic clients, and take notice of consumers' new buying patterns.

Twenty five per cent of business leaders recently surveyed out of over 300 CEO/CFO's said they were already experiencing demand from customers for green products.

Once a business has decided to adjust its values, new processes can be developed that will drive changes that not only result in new revenue streams and cost savings, but also long term sustainability and shareholder value.

A business can then construct a plan around its carbon management plan and its ability to adapt, which can be communicated to important stakeholders, whether customers, community, employees, government or shareholders.

For those skeptical about opportunities associated with an emissions trading scheme and advantages of companies acting early, it is worth considering an international example.

Porsche recently bought a controlling share in Volkswagen. One critical reason was to ensure the portfolio of Porsche was not adversely affected after 2015 when the European Union will impose a carbon reduction target of 120 grams per kilometer for every vehicle. That 2015 target caused fear in the hearts and minds of Porsche executives because the average CO2 emissions for any Porsche are about 242 grams.

There is no way, even with world best technology they would be able to bring that down across their vehicle fleet quickly.

But if you buy Volkswagen, you have a very low emitting line of vehicles across your portfolio of brands. So overnight Porsche was able to ensure they had protected the value of the Porsche brand in anticipation of the deployment of new low carbon emission technologies and processes coming on stream in the latter part of the decade.

It's time for the Australian corporate sector to evaluate and seize its opportunity whether it be trading, a move out of carbon-intensive industry, a move into carbon-light business or business restructuring.

Those businesses that think they have until 2010 are mistaken.

Advantage One has recently formed an alliance with Carbon Planet to offer clients practical climate change advice to assist in dealing with issues confronting clients.

Advantage One is carbon measured.