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Green IT: Nice, But Not A Customer Priority
12:00 AM EDT Mon. Jun. 23, 2008
From the June 30, 2008 issue of VARBusiness
"Some people do ask about it," said Diane Mammon, vice president of marketing for New York-based Starpoint Solutions. "But there are a lot of other things on the wish list, and that means reliability and what the solution is going to do for real savings."
"For us it's a matter of parts logistics," said David Weber, vice president of sales bid management for DecisionOne Inc., Lancaster, Pa. "And we do speciality equipment and have OSHA standards. But we're not finding it to be a true value-add. There's nothing from the customer side that's driving it, and no one telling us 'Give it to me right now.' "
Rick Marcotte, president and CEO of DLT Solutions Inc., Herndon, Va., deals primarily in the government sector, where there is a lot of talk about green but the government is buying with reliability and cost savings in mind.
"If there's a green component, great, but it's not a No. 1 priority," he explained. "I still don't believe that green IT by itself is the compelling motivator. Everyone would like to say they're environmentally friendly, but if [going green] doesn't save them money and generate reliability, it's not going to happen."
If green ideas are going to take over, they have to be systemic, providers agreed, especially in the public sector.
"The problem with green IT is that it has to come from the government itself to push these methods," said Kyle Nisenson, senior vice president of business development at SPL Integrated Solutions Inc., Centennial, Colo. "If we really believe this is a country that cares how green we get, then that's how we get serious about it—the government making standards and making the line. I don't see companies themselves necessarily making that leap."
"It's a tiebreaker. If the federal government wants it, they'll reward companies that do it," added Paul Whalley, vice president of Whalley Computer Associates Inc., Southwick, Mass.
All panelists agreed on certain basics of internal, enviro-friendly measures: efficient lighting, going paperless as much as possible and encouraging employees to improve their own practices.
Jason Wu, vice president of New York-based Tekserve Corp., touted his company's employee involvement in community contributions, including encouraging employees to ride bikes to work and teaming up with community organizations for recycling.
Catherine Calame, director of marketing and PR for Holbrook, N.Y.-based Future Tech Enterprise Inc., said her company uses reusable packaging items for materials that require a lot of back-and-forth between sources.
"But those are little bits, here and there," Whalley suggested. "If there's one big thing that's out there, it's virtualization. You're running one server instead of five, which means five times less electricity and less cooling because you didn't have to heat it in the first place. That's a big thing, with tangible benefits."
"A lot of products are premised on an ROI pitch," Marcotte said. "Realistically, you have to get involved with management and figure out how to get things turned on and off when not in use, and a whole plethora of other things if you really want to be green. If you really want to be green, you have to cut across the entire IT stack. A green initiative, to really have legs, has got to to be more holistic."
And even the ROI and cost savings benefits of green IT might not be enough to sway gatekeepers who are paid to look at bottom lines. If a chief financial officer is given the choice between green solutions and cost savings in a troubled economy, there's little question which direction he or she would probably move.
"The sell to the CFO is the hardest you're going to make," Nisenson agreed, "regardless of whether [something's] green."
"I don't know any IT managers who were fired for burning a few extra kilowatt hours," Marcotte added. "But definitely for reliability."
