Columbus, Ohio(October 7, 2008)—Redemtech, a leading provider of Technology Change Management (TCM) and IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) services, announced its Sustainable Computing initiative, a combination of services and market education programs designed to help large distributed organizations take a more comprehensive and sustainable approach to reducing the environmental impact of information technology systems. This announcement is being made in conjunction with today’s release of a new Redemtech-sponsored IDC White Paper, Beyond Power: IT’s Roadmap to Sustainable Computing. Redemtech is providing free and exclusive access to the paper at www.redemtech.com/beyondpower.
This white paper lays out a roadmap for implementing a more comprehensive approach that can achieve dramatic reductions in IT’s environmental footprint while delivering a measurable and repeatable return on investment. According to Beyond Power, few companies are taking such a comprehensive approach today. However, best practices have emerged through the efforts of companies that have deployed pockets of excellence in approaching sustainability. The white paper brings together these best practices to establish a roadmap for moving toward more sustainable approach to IT management that addresses environmental, social and security targets, while also providing recurring gains for the bottom line.
“While reducing data center energy consumption has been the low-hanging fruit in the pursuit of corporate environmentalism, this goal needs to be accomplished within the context of a more comprehensive approach to green IT,” said David Daoud, a research manager with IDC and one of the lead authors of Beyond Power. “We believe the opportunities to reduce costs and environmental footprint through Sustainable Computing practices will ultimately dwarf those available through a program focused only on energy consumption. This is the next phase in the evolution of Green IT.”
While data center energy efficiency has dominated discussions of “Green IT”, Redemtech has identified multiple opportunities to significantly reduce IT’s environmental impact through policies and processes directed at the acquisition, management and retirement of desktop computers and laptops.
According to United Nations University, it takes 1.8 tons of raw materials and approximately 240 kilograms of fossil fuel to manufacture a PC—which is about 81 percent of the energy the computer will use. At the same time, an alarming volume of e-waste is being disposed of improperly, poisoning the environment and harming workers. The Basel Action Network estimates that up to 80 percent of the e-waste collected for recycling is exported overseas where dismantling shops lack the processes to prevent hazardous materials from harming workers and the environment.
As a result, Sustainable Computing emphasizes the value of reducing the demand for new technology by extending equipment lifecycles; reusing assets when possible through redeployment, remarketing or charitable donation; and ensuring a zero-landfill, zero-export, zero-incineration, zero-prison labor approach to responsible recycling.
“As an industry, it’s time for to us acknowledge that the drive for newer, better, faster technology, particularly on the desktop, can be in conflict with an environmentally and financially responsible approach to IT management,” said Robert Houghton, president of Redemtech.
Efforts to support the Sustainable Computing initiative include:
- Development of a self-assessment to be launched in October 2008. The Sustainable Computing self-assessment is designed to allow organizations to quickly audit current asset management practices to identify opportunities to achieve the greatest reductions in environmental impact.
- Working with the U.S. Government Accounting Office to call attention to practices by some recycling companies that are dumping e-waste overseas. Redemtech president Robert Houghton was the only industry representative to participate in a GAO conference call reviewing GAO findings on lack of compliance with current regulations limiting export of e-waste. The GAO’s report and news covering the announcement is available here.
- Working with the Basel Action Network to develop and support higher standards for environmental recycling that will divert more electronics from the waste stream and reduce the amount of hazardous materials entering landfills.
- Release of an analysis of computer lifecycle costs that reveal that for every $1,000 in original cost, moving from a three-year to a four-year lifecycle generates savings of approximately $325. When lifecycles are extended to 4.5 years, the savings increase to nearly $500. In addition, the company has used the U.S EPA’s Environmental Benefits Calculator to determine the impact of reusing, rather than disposing of assets that have been idled by organization or personnel changes. Reusing 1,000 desktop computer systems creates a carbon offset equivalent to the energy required to power 681 homes for a year and the greenhouse gasses produced by 481 cars in a year.
These activities support previous efforts by Redemtech to support greater reuse and more responsible recycling of technology, including being one of only five organizations in the world to achieve IDC’s newly established Green Recycling and Asset Disposal for the Enterprise (G.R.A.D.E.) certification, participating in the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) and Community Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (C-MAR) programs, partnering with TechSoup (www.techsoup.org), on the Refurbished Computer Initiative and developing an ISO-certified Environmental Management System (EMS) that significantly exceeds all environmental standards required by law.
IDC White Paper sponsored by Redemtech, Beyond Power: IT's Roadmap to Sustainable Computing, Doc #214526, Oct 2008.
For more information on Redemtech’s Sustainable Computing initiatives, capabilities and achievements visit www.redemtech.com/sustainablecomputing.
About Redemtech
Redemtech Technology Change Management (TCM) services help organizations increase IT asset utilization and assure regulatory compliance during technology transitions. Redemtech provides an outsourced solution to TCM that uses best practices and automated technologies to implement and manage processes for deploying, redeploying and decommissioning computer systems. Redemtech clients can realize a 40 to 70 percent reduction in asset recovery and disposition costs, while achieving 100 percent warranted data security and environmental compliance assurance. Redemtech is a wholly owned subsidiary of Micro Electronics, one of the largest privately held technology companies in the United States. |
