Gartners Top 10 Technologies for 2008 : Green IT

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I just read Gartners Top 10 Technologies for 2008 and was happy to note that they listed Green IT as #1. Going Green is featuring prominently in the agenda for many Retail organizatoins. I love REIs plans for the Next Generation Stores. These plans incorporate some green technology ideas and could help to enhance REI’s image as an environmentally friendly retailer.  REI Boulder store is the prototype, representing REI’s new standard for sustainability and next generation of retailing.

In Windows Vista you'll experience better handling of all your PC's transitions between On and Off states. You can quickly put your PC in Sleep mode using the power button on the Windows Start menu or, if configured, using the computer's external power button. Sleep is a new power state that combines the quick-resume benefits of Standby with the data protection benefits of Hibernation. Allowing a PC to go to sleep during off hours, as compared with leaving it on all the time, saves anywhere from $55 a year to $70 annually, depending on the type of monitor. Also in Vista, businesses will be able to enforce the power management settings through the group policy tool. That means companies will be able to require, say, that a screen goes blank after 15 minutes of inactivity. All that snoozing time could pay off environmentally as well. By putting six PCs to sleep, rather than leaving them on, businesses can save the same amount of carbon emissions that would otherwise require an acre of trees to absorb.

Products like Sharepoint, Exchange and Office help reduce paper usage with the help of the electronic records management capabilities, infopath forms and workflows replacing paper trails. Virtual collaboration using communication capabilities like Live Meeting, Office Communications Server is all about enabling people to work together in a virtual world. The new mode of communication and collaboration has enabled tele-commuting (and being green) to be a reality ..... An interesting story from the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc about how they streamlined (and reduced paper usage) field communications using Sharepoint.Click here for story. Joel Oleson's blog on how Sharepoint can save the planet is an interesting read as well.