The Green Grid outlines 8 key steps to best optimise existing IT equipment

The Green Grid, a global consortium of groups and individuals dedicated to advancing resource efficiency in information technology and data centers, has highlighted eight steps, that organisations can take to become more environmentally friendly. Data centre managers and CIOs are often bombarded with product offerings promising to make their IT greener but, optimising existing equipment and resources is a more viable, cost effective and ultimately easier solution. Many of these approaches are simple to implement in any organisation.

Here are 8 key steps from The Green Grid:
1 - Plan for the long term – Creating well-defined and consistent goals is integral to effectively enhance energy IT efficiency and sustainability. It is worthwhile considering a tool like the Data Center Maturity Model, which analyses organisations and identifies ongoing steps and innovations necessary to achieve greater energy efficiency and sustainability.

2 – Establish metrics to measure your data centre efficiency – Establishing metrics is an effective way to accurately monitor the improvements your organization is making in terms of energy efficiency. PUE has become a widely accepted method for organisations to measure and improve infrastructure energy efficiency. The Green Grid’s Power Usage Effectiveness Estimator allows users to enter data on the estimated power usage of the components for a data centre facility in order to properly estimate the PUE™ of the facility. It also offers metrics for Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE™) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE™).

3 – Create green IT awareness within your company –Small changes like using the eco mode on devices, going paperless and switching devices off when they are not being used can make a big difference to your energy consumption. Training staff to adopt green practices is also a good step to encourage sustainability within your organization. Joining a green IT organisation can keep you up to date on the latest strategies, technologies and initiatives. The Green Grid, for example, offers conferences, white papers and training about the latest green IT trends.

4 – Keep track of policies and regulations – There are many different factors which effect green IT, including various government policies. Keeping track of these can often be time consuming, but taking the time to do this is certainly worthwhile. The Green Grid has created a report, which includes energy policy research and the implications for data centres in EMEA. This information prepares data centres for the effects of current and pending changes in the regulatory environment.

5 – Stay cool and go back to nature – Go back to basics and just open a window! Don’t underestimate the power of free cooling. The Green Grid’s research shows that data centre operators using economisers can make savings of 20 percent when compared with those without economisers. The Green Grid offers detailed Cooling Maps that show how many hours of free cooling data centres can expect each year by using air-side economisers to measure the potential number of hours they can switch off expensive and energy-intensive chillers.

6 – Don’t be scared off by the heat – Unlike the data centres of the 1950s, today’s data centres can withstand a surprising amount of heat so don’t worry about your data centre not being able to run in high and humid temperatures. A recent report from The Green Grid discusses how data centres can run at significantly higher temperatures without affecting equipment.

7 - Check for a pre-existing eco modes – Many devices these days have an eco-mode but most users aren’t aware of it. Check your equipment and make your staff aware of it, it doesn’t just exist in laptops and monitors but also in Uninterruptable Power Supply Systems.

8 – Recycle and re-use – Using green IT is only half of the story, your eWaste is also an important factor to consider. When IT devices have reached their end of life, organisations should aim to recycle as much of the device as possible and minimize the quantity of material disposed of. The Green Grid has developed the electronics Disposal Efficiency (EDE) metric so organisations are able to calculate and measure their progress in improving equipment disposal processes over time.