With spiralling energy prices, greener public sector IT has never made more sense. Little changes can make a big difference, our roundtable heard.
The greenest model for government information technology would be a network of service centres supporting all the state's applications and systems, relying on large computing centres around the country. But our expert roundtable regretfully concluded that to get there would take a miracle of joining up.
In the here and now, the greening government IT strategy was launched in July. In it, the Cabinet Office specified 18 steps departments should take to reduce their carbon footprint, on the way to the ultimate aim – a carbon neutral government estate by 2012. But this is a plan, not a command. Departments will not be compelled to take specific measures. Participants debated how it would work in practice.
It's about culture change, the roundtable heard; that's to say a set of dispositions rather than universally applicable rules. There's no point in ordaining that everyone, everywhere turn off their computers at night. Some machines need to be left on for updates to be installed.
Behaviour change
So how do you encourage people to change their behaviour? Security guards might go round after hours switching off computers, perhaps leaving notes to shame users into getting with the green programme. One government department had conducted an after-hours audit of computers left on then encouraged competition among staff for who had the greenest floor.
Suppliers might offer auto shutdown as a built-in option; all office machines might have counters displaying the amount of energy they are using. This goes too for how much they print out. Use of paper depends on the number and location of printers. One department found that printing volumes were cut by a third when offices were refurbished and printers moved out to a portable building; in this instance the printers were never moved back in. Another option might be a paper quota for each member of staff, which they can either use themselves or trade with colleagues, like a mini carbon trading scheme. Another idea is rationing. Employees would choose either a desktop or laptop; if anything more is required there would be an additional charge.
It shouldn't be too difficult to enforce small changes, one contributor said, such as forbidding screen savers, or ensuring everyone printed double-sided, at least on printers set up to do so. Departments could select one or two of the Cabinet Office recommendations to focus on the most appropriate to them.
The roundtable noted that the force of prices was going its way. Energy costs and efficiency are now the biggest drivers of the green programme and will increasingly be a factor as people look to reduce spiralling energy costs. But it doesn't matter how one gets there. Sustainability needs to be embedded in all areas of work. "Gone are the days when we were not looking at money at all or just looking at green issues", said one participant.
Government departments and local authorities traditionally think only in terms of the next year's budget, but they will have to start looking at whole-life costs of their IT and stop replacing IT systems every three years. A local authority may have to weigh up the benefits of, say, a new playground against buying computers, in a climate where all spending on IT is seen as a waste of money by local papers and even councillors.
And while central government is working on shared services, it becomes more complicated in local government where you try and share systems across different authorities. It raises the question of ownership and control, also difficult across central government. "If you share things you inevitably lose control. You have not got absolute control if you are running two councils off the same system."
In the wake of scare stories about lost disks, the suspicion about data sharing in this country also needs to be challenged so information can be delivered in a different, more sustainable way. We have a possessive view of our own data that's quite different from countries elsewhere, such as Scandinavia.
The IT industry itself works on "Moore's law", about the accelerating pace of increases in IT capacity: what should it do to make moderate energy consumption and make products more sustainable? It's argued that "virtualisation" – separating physical machines from -applications and software – and more remote and home working, mean people don't need to be close to servers. That means servers can be centralised into remote data centres, leading to possible savings of 65%-70% on energy.
Caution
But caution is needed on these figures. If government bodies are simply moving their energy consumption from one physical area to another, that is not in itself a saving. Who pays what and how will any savings be measured? Better accounting systems are needed.
Different budget holders all have to buy in, too. That includes estates managers, who have control of buildings and therefore energy costs, IT departments and commercial directorates, who deal with travel. It requires open dialogue between chief officers in finance, technology and information, as well as with suppliers. If chief information officers were responsible for energy costs you would see changes being made, said participants. A lot of this work only means rechannelling existing resources, not having to find new ones.
One participant had created an energy efficiency fund based on better management of buildings but was then stymied in attempts to spend the funds on anything other than capital improvements. "It's all very well having a million pounds but not if you can't spend it." However, creative accounting could sometimes be used, for example in claiming that extending the life of current machines could be designated as capital improvements.
A plea was made to suppliers to become more proactive and come up with innovative green solutions based on specific departments' needs: "They are not coming to me and saying this is how we can help make a difference and do what we can for the planet – and that's really what we're all about."
Talking points
• It's about changing behaviour, not top-down command and control
• We need better ways to measure energy use and ensure it is reduced, not just moved around
• The IT industry should work more closely with government customers
• Shared, centralised servers would save -energy, but who could make that happen?
• Everyone's greener now: rising costs are making this a priority
This roundtable was sponsored by Fujitsu Siemens
