Go Green. Save Green.
By Bryan Reed on Thu, September 16, 2010
People can argue about the impact of climate change and the need for environmental awareness all they want. I’ve always felt that no matter conserving resources is still a good idea. I felt this way for one simple, too often overlooked reason: saving resources saves money. If you could do the same job, and create the same result for less money, wouldn’t you?
I read Matthew Wheeland’s Greener Computing post about Digital Realty Trust (DRT)’s data center energy audit, and felt it deserved some applause for making plain the obvious benefit of energy-use reduction. What the audit revealed is that DRT’s data center, operating at a better-than-average, but hardly record-breaking Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.6 – which sits between the average of about 2.5 and the industry-leading, which is below 1.1 – saved literally millions of dollars by increasing their energy efficiency.
I’ll say that one more time. DRT, a high-tech real estate firm, claims they are saving between $6 and $10 million per year in energy costs. That’s a lot of money.
Of course, results vary. But let’s say you managed to cut back on some energy usage and your business saved $600,000, or $60,000, or $6,000 every year. And you're reducing your impact on the environment. Still worth it?
Green IT is one of the most ubiquitous buzzwords these days. And I’m all for making strides to help the environment. But it can be hard to feel a direct impact from using compact fluorescent lightbulbs instead of normal incandescent ones. It’s not hard to feel a significant cost savings.
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