Sustainable IT | Ted Samson | TAG: Waste reduction

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March 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Xerox develops Sustainability Calculator for doc tech

Add Xerox to the list of vendors adding green-o-meter functionality to their wares. The company Tuesday will unveil what it dubs a Sustainability Calculator, designed to help customers evaluate the environmental impact of their document-technology systems, such as printers, faxes, and copiers.

Part of the company's Xerox Office Services, the Sustainability Calculator measures the waste and greenhouse gas emissions associated with powering printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction devices. It also measures the differences, in environmental terms, resulting from practices such as printing single-sided documents instead of double-sided, or using different types of ink.

In addition to the aforementioned version, which Xerox reps would use during an assessment for a customer, the company also has developed a slimmed-down Web-based version.

Both calculators require a user to input information about the various machines in his or her organization. They then employ "proprietary algorithms and document assessment research to deliver data about a company's entire fleet of office products, from printers to multifunction devices and copiers, regardless of the equipment supplier," according to Xerox.

Once a customer has a glimpse of the inefficiency of its document-tech systems, the next step (Xerox hopes) is to show customers how to gain efficiency by, say, in retiring various older copiers, fax machines, and printers for fewer, newer MFDs.

It might be tempting for to dismiss this type of tool as simply a marketing scheme to exploit CXOs who've caught a case of the green fever that's swept the U.S. and beyond. But the reality is, there are cost savings to be had from certain sustainable practices, and making adjustments to your company's network of printers and other document-technology products is one of them. That includes moving to fewer multi-purpose machines as your older ones are ready for retirement.

First, a new model MFD should be Energy Star compliant, which means it has a significantly lower power draw -- as much as 70 percent, according to Xerox -- than that of its one-function predecessors combined. Also, from a green perspective, manufacturing and shipping four machines -- a copier, a scanner, a fax machines, and a printer -- requires more resources than does building and shipping a single MFD that can do the work of four.

According to Patricia Calkins, vice president of environment, health, and safety at Xerox, many customers have been asking for more information about the green benefits of consolidating doc-tech systems and improv-ing their printing practices. "I was very surprised as I've been doing customer roundtables," says Calkins. "We talk about optimizing the office, and people have said, 'We understand the financial benefits. We want to talk about the environmental benefits."

Global defense and technology company Northrop Grumman worked with Xerox at one of its sectors to reduce a fleet of 2,000 printers, hundreds of MFDs, and stand-alone copiers to fewer than 1,100 devices. According to the Sustainability Calculator numbers, the change resulted in a savings of 27 percent in energy usage while reducing GHG emissions by 26 percent and solid waste creation by 33 percent.

Posted by Ted Samson on March 24, 2008 09:55 PM

December 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Survey: Apple users more likely to be green-minded

Apple users are proportionally more eco-friendly than users of other vendors' PCs. Moreover, they're more willing to plunk down extra cash for "green" products.

That nugget of information is one of many findings in a report just released by Forrester Research titled "In Search Of Green Technology Consumers: Why Tech Marketers Should Target This Emerging Segment." Forrester surveyed computer users to determine the extent of their green leanings and what drove their environmentally conscientious practices (or lack thereof).

The report finds that, all told, 12 percent of U.S. adults are "bright green," which Forrester defines as those who are "concerned about the environment and global warming, and strongly agree that they would pay extra for consumer electronics that used less energy or came from a company that was environmentally friendly."

Moreover, another 41 percent of U.S. adults are "green consumers": those who "share concerns about environmental issues and global warming, but do not strongly agree that they would pay more for environmentally-friendly electronics."

The remaining 47 percent of the population "do not (yet) share the greens' concerns about the environment or global warming."

Forrester found that 14 percent of Apple users are bright green. From there, the list breaks down like this: 13 percent of Compaq consumers are bright green; then 12 percent of Gateway users; 11 percent of eMachines buyers; 10 percent of Dell fans; 9 percent of Toshiba users; 9 percent of IBM/Lenovo consumers; and 9 percent of consumers who buy their PCs from "Other" vendors. Below the "Other" category are HP users, 7 percent of whom are bright green. (The report notes that these numbers don't reflect the green practices of the companies themselves.)

Forrester notes that PC vendors are already making efforts to embrace more environmentally friendly practices and deliver greener products for several reasons: to appeal to consumers' ever-evolving eco-leanings; to deflect criticism from watchdog groups such as Greenpeace; and to adhere to regulations such as Europe's ROHS directive.

Those greener practices are taking several forms: designing products in a more conscientious manner; boosting system energy efficiency; cleaning up their manufacturing processes; using less wasteful packaging and transport methods; and making it easier for users to recycle their PCs.

Looking forward, Forrester predicts "that green-targeted PCs and other electronics will evolve as part of the consumer electronics industry's move to go beyond "beige box" design and styling and instead incorporate consumer style into its products."

Indeed, we've already starting seeing some of this since Forrester conducted its survey in Q2 of this year. Dell, for example, recently released a greened-up version of its Inspiron desktop. Everex is also focusing on the greenness of its recently unveiled TC2502 Green gPC, which runs on Linux.

The Forrester report "In Search Of Green Technology Consumers: Why Tech Marketers Should Target This Emerging Segment" can be purchased here for $279.

Posted by Ted Samson on December 4, 2007 08:59 AM

November 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Verizon recycling program fights domestic violence

November and December are busy months for me. There's Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Channukah, my parents' anniversary, my sister's birthday, my brother-in-law's birthday, my own birthday, and my dad's birthday. So I hope I can be forgiven for not realizing until today that tomorrow, Nov. 15, is America Recycles Day. (Spare a tree, please; don't send me a card.)

Yes, it's easy to be a bit cynical about the host of arbitrary "holidays" that clutter our calendars. (National Kazoo Day will be on Jan. 28; better start preparing.) But I can get behind America Recycles Day, especially when I learn about programs such as Verizon's HopeLine.

The way it works is, Verizon collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries, and accessories in any condition -- from any wireless service provider -- at its Communications Stores nationwide. Phones that can be refurbished are sold for reuse; those that can't are disposed of in an environmentally sound way. That part is good for the environment. Proceeds go toward providing wireless phones and cash grants to shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic-violence prevention and awareness.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 14, 2007 10:13 AM

November 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)

The greener -- and darker -- sides of MS's refurbisher program

Microsoft has launched the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) program through which companies that sell refurbished PCs can easily load licensed versions of Windows XP and necessary drivers onto their wares. You can read the details right here.

I've got mixed feelings about the MAR program. On the plus side, it may encourage more environmentally concerned, pennywise, and/or cautious-minded companies and home users to consider purchasing refurbished PCs. Let's break that down.

I say environmentally minded because every year, as recently reported by Leon Erlanger, the e-waste problem is big and growing. To paraphrase some of his report:

According to IDC, in 2006 alone, 30.7 million commercial PCs, or 70 percent of the total commercial installed base, were retired. Yet IDC estimates that only 33 percent of U.S. companies, mostly large enterprises, have made use of the asset disposal industry. In the European Union the number is closer to 40 percent. That's unfortunate, because the increasing number of retired PCs that end up in landfills results in more toxic pollution. PCs and monitors, especially old ones, contain a multitude of hazardous substances.

That's not good news. But what is good news is the fact that the market for refurbished systems is growing. Up to 28 million refurbished PCs will be sold this year, making up 10 percent of the global PC market, according to Microsoft said Hani Shakeel, senior product manager of the genuine Windows product marketing team.

I say that that refurbished PCs in general should appeal to the penny-wise because they simply cost less than new ones. It's entirely likely that two-year-old computers will suit the needs of the average home user or employees at an SMB, so if you go the refurbished route, you can save some cash.

Finally, there's the cautious-minded aspect to the MAR program, which I know is a controversial topic. Like it or not, if you want support from Microsoft, including access to necessary patches and updates, you need to be running a legitimately licensed version of Windows.

Through MAR, companies and end-users who buy systems from a participating reseller will know the machines are fully functional and ready to work out of the box, loaded with a version of XP that Microsoft will recognize and support. That provides some peace of mind -- and saves time that would be spent loading Windows onto the machines at the office. Those benefits could encourage more people to consider refurbished PCs as an alternative to new ones.

Now here's what might bother you about MAR, and it certainly gives me pause. Suppose a company sells 50 PCs to, say, TechTurn, one of the two refurbishers currently participating in MAR. The systems are in pristine condition, and all are running licensed versions of Windows XP Pro. However, the company's IT admin didn't keep the original OS CDs to demonstrate that each version of XP was legit, which is pretty common.

So TechTurn does a full wipe of the systems, down to the bare metal. Then, as a result, thanks to Microsoft's end-user license agreement, TechTurn has to pay for new Windows licenses for each one of those systems. Albeit, the licenses are discounted ones; still, that's an expense that presumably gets passed on to the buyer. So ultimately, Microsoft is reaping the benefits of selling a second Windows license for a PC that was already running one fair and square -- because the admin or user didn't save the original installation CDs. That part's not quite fair, now is it?

The thing is -- and this is me speculating -- Microsoft should have ways of probing systems to ensure they're running legitimate versions of XP. Why not supply refurbishers with the tools to do just that before wiping them? Systems that are could then be reloaded after they're wiped with the same licensed version of XP they ran pre-wipe. The refurbisher could even burn a copy of the necessary backup CD, for a neglible fee, and package it with the system.

What do you think about the MAR program?

Posted by Ted Samson on November 9, 2007 11:47 AM

November 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Q&A: From 90 years old to LEED gold

There's a tendency in our society to simply throw out the old and replace it with something shiny and new. Sometimes, that might be necessary; often, though, the old still has value, and chucking it results in costly and unnecessary waste. An older server, for example, could still function as a test machine for patches. Or a 90-year-old building could be transformed into an energy-efficient, eco-friendly datacenter.

Skeptics may scoff at the notion, but not Jim Smith, vice president of engineering at Digital Realty Trust. Smith took the lead in transforming 20,000 square feet of a facility built in 1917 into the world's first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified datacenter.

Judging by previous interactions I've had with Smith, I can safely say that this project wasn't simply a "green-washing" publicity stunt. Smith approaches sustainable IT from a very practical, business-oriented standpoint: boosting efficiency and reducing waste results in long-term cost savings. Embracing LEED benchmarks, as companies such as Adobe, Qualcomm, and HP have done, helps to lay down the foundation for reaping those benefits.

Following is a Q&A between Smith and me about the datacenter renovation project.

Ted Samson: I see the building was built in 1917. Did the company recently acquire it and do a full renovation before starting to use it, as opposed to using it, then deciding to do the LEED renovation?

Jim Smith: We've owned the 350 East Cermak building in Chicago for more than two years and LEED Gold certified a new datacenter within the building as a project for a customer. We did not have to do any major renovations to get the LEED certifications, but it was nonetheless an intensive process. Not simple, but we did it and are proud of how it turned out.

The LEED Gold certification is not for the entire building. 350 East Cermak is a huge building -- more than a million square feet in total -- and this specific certification is for about 40,000 square feet, which is still a large space but not the entire building. We have another project in the works that will be an entire floor and we're excited about that.

TS: What was the thinking in upgrading an existing, old building as opposed to finding a more modern building or starting from scratch?

JS: A few factors went into the decision to use an existing building. One is that the customer really liked the 350 Cermak facility because it is such an ideal spot, right in the Loop and at the exchange. Another important factor for us is that the LEED certification encourages reuse of existing structures, which is very energy-efficient when you look at how much energy is used in materials and construction for new buildings.

There are some misconceptions that LEED certification only makes sense for new buildings, but this project showed us that the process definitely works for existing buildings. Even huge, old, historic structures like this one in Chicago.

One key takeaway from this project for the datacenter industry as a whole is that energy-efficiency initiatives should not just be limited to new construction. You can do great projects in existing buildings and get amazing results.

TS: Could you please give me a couple of "before and after" examples as to what changes you made to the facility to help it earn its Gold certification? I'm particularly interested in anything that improves energy efficiency, that was solved with IT tools, or that affects the datacenter performance.

JS: One important thing we used are sophisticated energy-measurement tools.... These are not expensive, but they provide critical data that let you understand what is happening in the datacenter. Every datacenter should have this, particularly since it is such a small investment and provides such valuable information. Step one for energy-efficient operations is always to have a way to measure.

Another important thing ... is commissioning -- both fundamental commissioning and advanced commissioning.... It was an important step in the process for this LEED Gold datacenter. The commissioning process is very meaningful because it verifies the design basis and makes you test the systems for efficiency. You learn a lot during this process and can apply that knowledge right upfront to make adjustments that ensure you are maximizing your energy savings.

We [also] installed tools to monitor outside air at the facility. The equipment and monitoring system makes sure the air is clean, and helps us improve performance of the ventilation system and improve indoor air quality.

TS: How much did the project cost?

JS: The financial impact of the LEED process was an extra 4 percent in cost -- half of which was materials and tools, and the other half of which was administrative. Very efficient from a cost perspective, and it has an overwhelmingly positive net present value. Definitely worth the cost.

One important thing that I would highlight is this: There is some skepticism out there about how relevant LEED certification is to datacenters and about how significant the benefits are. I would argue that is does have a lot of value and should be strongly considered as one of number of tools that companies can use to make their datacenters more efficient. It's not the end-all-be-all, but it does provide a way of focusing the engineering and design and construction and operations teams -- with a process that builds good habits and keeps them focused on objectives that do achieve energy efficiency.

Anyone who has ever been involved in a datacenter project knows the value in having a process that keeps those teams focused and organized in this way. That alone makes this process valuable, even before you factor in the energy-efficiency gains.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 8, 2007 03:00 AM

November 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Cassatt unveils Active Reponse suite for cutting datacenter energy waste

Company says app-aware, platform-agnostic software intelligently powers servers off and on as needed

With backing from big-name IT companies such as Sun, Citrix, and Red Hat, Cassatt today unveiled its Active Response 5.0 software suite, capable of actively powering servers on and off as needed and pooling physical and virtual server resources to reduce datacenter energy waste by as much as 50 percent, according to the company.

Combining Cassatt Active Power Management and utility computing technologies based on Cassatt Collage, Active Response is designed to rein in the amount of power wasted by servers that often sit idle for long periods until they are needed. Those include machines in development and test centers, scale-out production environments, failover, and disaster recovery sites.

Specifically, Active Response employs a policy engine that, according to Cassatt, powers servers up and down on an as-needed basis, "[taking] into account server priorities and needs, server interrelationships, application dependencies and relationships, and individual server power consumption."

The software also takes into account variables such as peak and off-peak power schedules, time of day, and emergencies such as "demand curtailment" mandates from power companies to reduce electrical consumption.

Admins also can set policies to ensure server resources are available to meet service level agreements for application delivery.

The company says the system is application aware, knowing when and how apps must be shut down and brought back up. Further, it's aware of application interdependencies shared across multiple servers, Cassatt reports.

The company says the suite will run on any platform and works with any virtual or physical server , (including blade servers). Changes to existing hardware and software configs aren't necessary, either.

All told, there will be four editions of the Active Reponse suite: Standard, Premium, Data Center, and Enterprise. Especially interesting to me is the Enterprise Edition, slated for release in next year. The company says it will enable an organization to share and optimize its resources across multiple data centers in different geographies.

"Pooling your IT resources and then using software to intelligently and actively control them can create a real shift in the economics of running a datacenter," said Michelle Bailey, research vice president for IDC, in a written statement. "With products like Cassatt Active Response, customers can start to see the type of energy efficiency, application availability, and datacenter responsiveness that previously were only possible by having much higher levels of infrastructure and operations investment."

Cassatt, launched in 2003 and based in San Jose, Calif., has announced a fairly impressive array of supporters for its technology, including Sun, Citrix, Red Hat, and BearingPoint.

"We view green initiatives that promise to reduce energy with minimal resources as a win-win for everyone, and as a platform with the potential to transform the data center," said Frederic Veron, managing director, financial services infrastructure solutions at BearingPoint, in a written statement. "We are very pleased to be working with Cassatt on Active Power Management solutions that will enable our clients' data centers to intelligently power up or down in synch with business cycles and demand."

Cassatt Active Response 5.0 will ultimately be available in four editions. Standard Edition, out on Nov. 16, starts at $200 per managed machine. The Premium Edition, available today, starts at $1,250 per managed machine. The Data Center Edition, also available today, starts at $2,500 per managed machine. Finally, the Enterprise Edition will be available in the second half of 2008.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 5, 2007 12:45 PM

November 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Xerox and GreenPrint ink deal to cut print waste

The datacenter, server room, and the desktop aren't the only places to cut tech-related waste at your organization. The printing station is a prime location to reap some eco-friendly, cost-cutting benefits, considering that organizations waste around $90 per year, per user, in ink and paper expenses on unnecessary printing.

To that end, Xerox has teamed up with GreenPrint, a provider of software that lets users easily tweak documents in a print preview mode to remove superfluous graphics, text, or entire pages. The company's GreenPrint Enterprise software is available as a free download for customers who purchase one of Xerox's Phaser 8560 or 8860 solid ink color printers.

This looks to be a pretty potent waste-reducing combination. I've tried out GreenPrint, and it certainly has potential to save paper and ink.

Meanwhile, solid ink color printers, according to Xerox, "greatly reduce the waste associated with disposable toner and ink consumables by using solid sticks of non-toxic ink instead of toner or inkjet cartridges." They produce 90 percent less waste than a typical color laser printer, the company says. Solid ink printers also do not produce ozone, which has environmental and health benefits.

"We see bundling our software with Xerox solid ink printers as an ideal fit in a lot of ways," said GreenPrint CEO Hayden Hamilton in a written statement. "The solid ink printers have been designed to eliminate the waste associated with toner cartridges, bringing annual waste related to packaging and cartridges down from 157 pounds to 5 pounds per printer. With the inclusion of GreenPrint, their solid ink users can eliminate unnecessary printed pages, reducing the waste and cost associated with printing by an additional 15 to 20 percent across the board."

The bundling of the Phaser 8560 or 8860 and GreenPrint Enterprise is available now.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 2, 2007 12:21 PM

October 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Citrix unveils energy-saving PowerSmarts for Presentation Server

During peak hours, admins want their servers fully charged and running at full bore to ensure their apps are delivered without annoying service lapses. But during non-peak hours, there's no logical reason why machines need to feed on as many watts of energy.

In an effort to help cut down on that energy waste -- and the associated energy and cooling bills -- Citrix today announced a new PowerSmarts feature for its Citrix Presentation Server line, which lets admins set policies to "automatically dial server power down based on application traffic levels," according to the company.

The company claims the feature can help customers datacenter energy consumption costs by up to fifty percent, a rather impressive claim if it's accurate.

"The key to any effective response to green IT challenges is to be able to maintain, and even increase, the capacity of IT infrastructure while reducing its energy consumption," said Scott Herren, Citrix group vice president and general manager of the Citrix Application Virtualization Group. "By powering down unused Presentation Servers during off-peak usage, we are helping our customers be more green and at the same time putting money right back into their wallets."

Citrix also announced that HP is the first company with hardware to support the PowerSmarts feature in its HP ProLiant portfolio.

Notably, HP itself unveiled a power-capping feature of its own earlier this year called HP Insight Power Manager, part of the company's Systems Insight Manager (SIM) hardware management platform.

PowerSmart is compatible with all current versions and editions of Citrix Presentation Server and iLO-enabled HP servers. It will be available in December to all Citrix Presentation Server customers as a free download at www.citrix.com/cdn.

Posted by Ted Samson on October 22, 2007 02:56 PM

October 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Report: More utilities to dangle incentives for going green

There are plenty of enticing green technologies out there that can reduce energy bills, such as virtualization, MAID, or solar panels. While the potential long-term savings are evident, the upfront costs can be offputting for businesses and individuals. Yet in some states, such as California, utilities dangle cash incentives to lure users and businesses to the green side -- and more utilities will be following suit in the not-too-distant future, according to an article in The Christian Science Monitor.

Why do some utilities push and pay for conservation while others don't? It's to do with a concept called decoupling. Specifically, state regulators "decouple utility profits from electricity production," as CSM explains it.

"The main idea is that by rearranging the incentive structure, regulators can give utilities clear incentives to push energy efficiency and conservation without hurting their bottom lines. Under the new rules in California, for example, electric utilities could make as much as $150 million extra if they can persuade Californians to save some $2 billion worth of power, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental group."

States such as Idaho, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont have adopted decoupling this year; nine others, including Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Wisconsin, are exploring it, according to CSM.

It's certainly a positive trend, indicative of how the green movement is taking hold, inspiring businesses, individuals, and government bodies to rethink their practices for the better. And it certainly a potential boon for companies with a green-tech roadmap who need just a bit more incentive to invest in sustainable technology.

(Thanks, by the way to Sun Eco-Responsibility VP Dave Douglas over at Sun for introducing me to the decoupling concept.)

Posted by Ted Samson on October 3, 2007 01:16 PM

September 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Follow the paperless trail

Companies are finding digital paper more efficient, secure, and economical than the tree-pulp-based variety

digital, paperless A paperless world is a long way off, but many businesses are taking strides to at least create a less-paper world. Companies across various industries are finding ways to cut paper waste, from issuing electronic tickets and PDF receipts to incorporating electronic document management systems.

As with so many other green technologies out there, the driving influence here isn't necessarily sparing trees nor reducing one's carbon impact on the environment (though saving one ream of paper means five fewer pounds of CO2). Rather, it's a matter of boosting efficiency; making an easier-to-maintain paper(less) trail (nice for compliance purposes); boosting continuity (a digital copy of your files is handy if a natural disaster hits); and saving cash in the long term on costs associated with printing and mailing. (For some perspective on mailing costs, U.S. businesses spent an estimated $800 billion on direct mail correspondence to potential and existing customers last year, which translates into over 115 billion pieces of mail.)

Also a boon: less time wasted tracking down evasive faxes and archived paper documents, as well as transferring the data on those pages to electronic format.

Yeah, that's the ticket
One of the growing trends is so-called paperless tickets. ("So-called" because there's still paper involved; just far less.) Last week, the IATA (International Air Transport Association) -- which represents more than 240 airlines comprising 94 percent of international scheduled air traffic -- said that it would stop issuing paper tickets come May 31, 2008. The AITA says that airlines will save $9 per paper ticket that way, which adds up to $3 billion in annual savings for the industry. (Whether any of those savings will get passed on to Joe and Jane Aisle-Seat remains to be seen, but let's not hold our breath, lest we cause that little oxygen mask to drop.)

The IATA says the move will also spare "the equivalent of 50,000 mature trees each year."

Now, I've read some comments about this move, the authors of which have expressed concern that the cost of the paper tickets is essentially being passed on to the consumer, but I think that's a misconception or an exaggeration, depending on how you look at it.

If you haven't flown with a paperless ticket, here's how it works: You make your reservation and receive a confirmation e-mail. Now, you could print up that itinerary, if you need a printed point of reference, but it's not necessary. You could just access that info from your portable device, or jot down the basic on a piece of scrap paper. Then you show up at the airport before your flight and show your ID and a credit card to the nice person behind the counter (or better yet, you swipe it in one of those check-in kiosks). In turn, you'll receive one slip of paper, your boarding pass, which includes all the pertinent info. That's it.

So from a customer standpoint, it's really a lot easier than having to worry about whether your tickets have arrived, or whether you've left them at home on the bed beside the clean underwear you'd meant to pack. Plus with an e-mail confirmation, you can easily get at your details through your wireless device, just in case you've forgotten whether you're taking off at 1:27 a.m. Pacific or Eastern Time.

On a related note, The Boston Globe had an article last month about a company called Flash Seats, which is pushing electronic tickets to concerts, sporting events, and the like.

It works similarly to the e-tickets for airlines: When you order your tickets online, the order is associated with your credit card or identification. And when it's time to go to the game or show, you don't scour the house for the tickets or stand in line at will call; you swipe your credit card or driver's license as you go in. In turn, you get a paper guide telling you where your seats are.

In case your card isn't read, "venue officials verify the person's identity by asking agreed-upon security questions, such as mother's maiden name or first pet's name."

The Cleveland Cavaliers gave the system a spin last season. Participation was voluntary. "About 17 percent of season ticket holders used the system last season, a portion that [increased] to 50 percent during the club's playoff run into the NBA Finals," according to the Boston Globe article.

In addition to reducing paper waste, the system means potentially better control and security. "Team officials say they would like to maintain greater control to improve security, to prevent counterfeiting, and to reclaim some of the money that is going to third-party resellers such as eBay, StubHub, RazorGator, and AceTicket," says the Globe article.

From an end-user perspective, though, you do lose some convenience. Rather than being able to give tickets to friends so they can meet you at a show later, you have to go through the steps of having the electronic tickets transferred to their names, or else be sure that everyone arrives on time to go in together.

Would you like an e-ceipt with that?
I wrote about e-receipts a while back after learning that at Apple Stores, you can opt to have a receipt sent to you via e-mail instead of issued in paper form on the spot. To me, it seems like a natural evolution in receipts. That's how my proofs of purchase show up when I order online, or when I pay bills online, so why not when I make an in-store purchase? (I might be a bit warier for purchases made with cash, but as long as there's an electronic record stored with my bank or credit card company, I feel fine.)

But the paperless push doesn't just end for end-user purchases. Environmental Leader reports that UPS is trying to convince SMBs to adopt electronic billing by tugging at their eco-conscious heartstrings: "UPS has partnered with the National Arbor Day Foundation to make a $1 donation to the organization for every customer who opts for the paperless PDF invoice."

As UPS describes it, the benefits of a PDF receipt are numerous. It no doubt saves the company cash on printing and mailing receipts. And for customers, it means you receive receipts faster and in convenient electronic format.

Make the pile lower
Electronic tickets and receipts are, to me, really low-hanging fruit in the drive toward the paperless office. They represent the end part of complex workflows that are often tied to hard-to-change business practices and technology (or lack thereof).

One of the most obvious ways to cut paper (and print) waste at the office is to crack down on all the superfluous printing and copies end-users make. The average employee reportedly wastes $85 worth of printer paper and ink each year through unnecessary prints. Products such as GreenPrint offer an easy, non-disruptive tool for putting a dent in the pile. The utility lets users preview printouts and easily remove specific pages, text, or graphics from a print session.

But companies are taking further steps to reduce paper use, in the name of boosting efficiency. Insurance company Lloyd's (of London) has most recently garnered attention in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Times Online for company CEO Richard Ward's paper-cutting efforts. According to the Times, "a colleague in IT told him that each day Lloyd's was sending four tons of documents to its sorting office in Chatham, all carried by those white vans."

Ward told The Wall Street Journal that he's tackling the paper deluge on a small scale, liking it to "eating an elephant with a teaspoon." "We have to take small bites out of that elephant to make sure we can digest the changes we're making," he told The WSJ.
Among changes Ward has implemented, as he outlined in a speech in May: "Last year, we introduced an electronic filing cabinet - a document repository that enables claims and premiums to be handled quickly and efficiently without the need for paper files. ... Currently a fifth of all in scope claims are being processed using the Electronic Claims File. This is a significant increase on the 5 percent at the beginning of the year."

"In addition," he added, "if you look at Accounting and Settlement, more than 80,000 premium-related transactions have been processed electronically. Once again there has been a significant increase from the beginning of the year."

He says that the company's processing 30 percent of its claims electronically now, but the the goal is to hit 100 percent by March 31. "We might have a symbolic crushing of a van, and it might become a piece of art somewhere inside or outside the building. That might be quite appropriate to do once we've reached our goals," he told the Journal.

(Notably, crushing an otherwise useful van might not be the ideal way to celebrate an eco-friendly achievement of reducing paper waste and boosting efficiency, but that is another story.)

Keep your fax straight
There are plenty of other recent examples I can point to of organizations strolling the paperless trail. Rosen Hotels and Resorts recently announced that it adopted a fax server solution called RightFax from Captaris and integrated its Microsoft Exchange, Cisco CallManager, and Canon MFPs (multifunction peripherals). The end result: a central document management solution, used at the company's seven hotels, as well as its medical center and the insurance agency, to easily store and share documents that used to be passed around in paper format.

Among other features, the combined solution lets employees send faxes from just about any desktop app, or right from the MFPs, rather than having to deal with paper. Moreover, faxes are filed into SharePoint, where they can be accessed from within the network or remotely. Also handy: Employees on the go can receive immediate notifications when important documents are received.

Paper still plays a vital role in the business world, and no doubt will for years to come. But as more companies trade in reams of paper, stacks of pricey ink cartridges, and boxes of mailing supplies for PDFs, digital ink, e-mail, and document management systems, we'll collectively reap the benefits of a less-paper world.

Posted by Ted Samson on September 6, 2007 03:00 AM

September 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Pope Benedict preaches the merits of green

Politicians aren't the only leaders out there pushing for businesses and individuals to embrace green practices, such as reducing waste and carbon emissions for the sake of the planet (and the economy). Religious leaders are chiming in as well.

On Sunday at a gathering in Loreto, Italy, Pope Benedict XVI called for people (well, specifically young Catholics, according to the AP, but I bet he'd liked others to follow suit) to take steps to better protect the Earth. "Before it's too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth. ... We need a decisive 'yes' to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible."

Apparently, the Vatican is taking steps of its own to be eco-friendly. According to the report, "the Vatican ... has joined a reforestation project aimed at offsetting its CO2 emissions, and has also said it was installing solar cells on the roof of its main auditorium."

Moreover, at the gathering, participants received "biodegradable plates, recycling bags for their trash and a hand-cranked cell-phone recharger." (I wonder if they saw my guide to green geek goodies?)

I find it fascinating and heartening how this green wave has spread, becoming a common bond among differing business, political, and religious leaders. But it really should not be a surprise. More and more people are beginning to realize that the beauty of "going green" is, it's not only good for the planet and its inhabitants, but it's good for business, giving companies a way to save money by eliminating wasteful practices. I think that's been pretty well-documented.

And as I've said before, as more and more leaders and citizens of this little blue-green planet of ours clamor for ways to reduce waste, technologists will be continue to play a vital role in developing the tools to make that green dream a reality.

Posted by Ted Samson on September 3, 2007 01:40 AM

August 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Chillin' at the HP datacenter

A tour of HP's test lab datacenter reveals the company's Dynamic Smart Cooling initiative

Call me an environmentalist. Call me frugal. Or call me a glutton for punishment. I don't like turning on the air conditioning in my house here in Sacramento unless I absolutely have to (when the temperatures hit the 100s, for instance, as they did earlier this summer). My preferred method to beat the heat: Depending on what room I'm in, I'll turn on the fan that happens to be pointed in my general direction. It often gets the job done, and it's less expensive than cranking up the A/C to full blast.

The average server rack, however, doesn't have the luxury of flipping on the nearest cooling apparatus if it's getting too hot. So the traditional practice has been for datacenter operators to crank up the CRAC (computer room air conditioning) to the point where it feels like a meat locker.

That practice ensures that the hottest-running machines in the joint don't combust in a fiery explosion of hardware parts and mission-critical data. And even with best practices in place, that blanket-of-cold approach is wasteful from a "dear Lord, look at this month's energy bill" perspective.

InfoWorld:Chillin' with HP, sustainable it, ted samson But there's been some evolution in CRAC technology aimed at easing the pain. HP, for example, has been busily building on its Dynamic Smart Cooling (DSC) technology to help datacenter operators more efficiently chill their hardware on a more granular level, an approach the company says can deliver 20- to 45-percent energy cost savings. That could mean a cool million, depending on how large your facility is. And I had a chance to see DSC in action recently as I took a guided video tour of the datacenter at HP's test labs in Palo Alto, Calif., led by HP Fellow Chandrakant Patel, one of the DSC developers.

On the tour, I got to see the rows of server racks in HP's datacenter, all busily humming away -- yet the facility itself was surprisingly warm. (Patel likened it to summer in San Francisco, but really, I think it was warmer than that.) That's the magic of DSC: Affixed to every rack were small, black DSC sensors, which collected air-temperature measurements in real time and delivered them to the DSC's control node. In response to the readings, the system adjusts cooling, not of the entire facility, but rather just the area of the datacenter where a rack is running especially hot. And after that rack cools down, the CRAC unit for that region adjusts accordingly.

One of the cool tricks with the DSC, according to Patel: You can check on the temperature of your datacenter facility from anywhere, which is a mixed blessing if you're on a much-needed vacation in Tahiti and get an SMS about an overheating episode.

Patel also told me about HP's recently unveiled Thermal Assessment Services (TAS). Through TAS, HP measures a datacenter's thermal conditions to assist customers with planning server-rack placement. By knowing, for example, which regions of the facility get the most cool air, a datacenter admin could know the optimal location for the highest-utilized and hottest-running server racks.

Depending on how much a company is willing to shell out, a TAS assessment could include generating a "thermal zone map," a three-dimensional model depicting how much and where datacenter air conditioners are cooling.

As HP describes it, the maps can help datacenter operators see, for example, where there's over-provisioning or redundancy in cooling coverage in the room.

I don't want to give away everything in the video, but I will add that Patel shared with me an interesting chip-cooling technology that HP is working on called ink-jet cooling. It borrows from the technology behind ink-jet printers, but rather than showering paper with ink, small components within servers would shower chips with coolant, as needed. Time will tell just how effective this will be. I wonder about adding yet another delicate part to a server that can break.

Anyway, enjoy the video. Patel's a very engaging, eloquent, and erudite fellow.

Posted by Ted Samson on August 23, 2007 03:00 AM

July 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP: Over 1B pounds recycled

Vendor aims to recycle another billion pounds of electronics and printer cartridges by 2010

HP: Over 1B pounds recycled The expression "What goes around comes around" is proving increasingly apt in the world of enterprise hardware as more companies discover the benefits of recycling retired PCs, servers, handhelds, and the like.

Indicative of the rising interest in hardware recycling, also known as IT asset recovery, HP has announced that its achieved its goal of recycling one billion pounds of hardware six months before the deadline it had set back in 2004. The company now seeks to recycle two billion pounds of gear and printer cartridges -- that is, another billion pounds -- by 2010.

"Environmental responsibility is good business," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and CEO, in a written statement. "We've reached the tipping point where the price and performance of IT are no longer compromised by being green, but are now enhanced by it."

Pat Tiernan, VP of corporate, social, and environmental responsibility at HP, called the two billion pound goal for 2010 "the most aggressive recycling goal in the industry. "We expect to achieve it in three and a half years by expanding our convenient re-use and recycling services worldwide."

HP currently operates its program in 40 countries around the globe.

"In 2006 alone, HP recycled 164 million pounds of products globally -- the equivalent weight of more than 600 jumbo airliners and a 16 percent increase over 2005," said Tiernan.

Vendors that engage in hardware recycling refurbish and resell systems when possible ha or else mine the products for materials that can be used elsewhere. According to HP, plastics and metals it has recovered have been used to make a range of new products, including auto body parts, clothes hangers, plastic toys, fence posts, serving trays, and roof tiles.

Posted by Ted Samson on July 17, 2007 09:23 AM

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