2007: The year in green

Much of the green wave can be attributed to concern over the hot topic of global warming, a phenomenon associated with carbon emissions. Lo, said gases are linked to traditional power production and oil consumption, which is inspiring more people to turn off lights, power down systems, and invest in hybrid vehicles.

But the impetus to be eco-friendly wasn’t just tied to concern for our little blue-green planet. One of the obvious benefits for reducing energy waste is saving cash, be it in the form of lower electric bills or fewer dollars pumped into the gas tank.

In the world of business IT, however, lower power bills alone weren’t the inspiration for organizations to green up their acts. From coast to coast, companies have been struggling with a power crisis: They’ve outgrown their datacenter facilities, yet have need for more computing power — or the local utility can’t consistently provide them the juice they need to keep their operations flowing and their business growing.

In response, companies have embraced technologies and practices in the name of sustainability to wring as much performance as possible out of their existing datacenter infrastructure. The opportunity to highlight their technologies as part of the datacenter-refurbishing process was icing on the cake.

What follows are some of the highlights that made 2007 the year of green tech.

A greener eco-system

From the chip level up to the application layer, vendors groomed and packaged their wares to be more energy efficient and eco-friendly.

AMD and Intel, for example, both rolled out quad-core chips delivering lower energy consumption, as well as superior virtualization performance.

Speaking of which, virtualization was the poster child of sustainable technology in 2007. Leveraging wares from the likes of VMware and XenSource, companies found they could reduce dramatically reduce the number of servers they needed to deliver their applications and services.

On the server hardware front, vendors including HP unfurled servers promising superior power performance. IBM, meanwhile, touted the green credentials of its System z mainframe.

Moreover, companies including Cassatt, HP, and IBM injected power-capping features in their systems management apps to ensure that servers were consuming only as much energy as needed to deliver service reliably at any given time.

Server cooling also proved a hot topic this past year with companies such as APC, Dell, and HP revealing more innovative, energy-efficient ways to keep datacenter equipment properly chilled.

Meanwhile, companies such as 1E and Verdiem shined spotlights on their PC-management software designed to power down systems when not in use, waking them up for patching or just before employees showed up for work.

It didn’t end there: Storage vendors such as Copan trumpeted the green benefits of consolidation and MAID technology. Network companies such as Brocade and Cisco outlined ways that networking gear played into the sustainability game plan. From memory makers to power supply developers to motherboard companies, the consistent message was “we’re delivering the green goods.”

The green halo extended beyond products of the energy-efficiency persuasion, too. Companies such as GreenPrint as well as electronic document management companies pointed out that their products, among other benefits, reduce paper waste. Vendors such as Cisco, Polycom, Teliris, and Telanetix, meanwhile, praised their wares as eco-friendlier alternatives to flying hither and yon for meetings that could be conducted via telepresence.

Follow the rising star

The early half of 2007 saw PC vendors such as HP and Dell racing to crank out the first Energy Star 4.0 systems on the market. As the name and number would imply, the new EPA’s Energy Star standard — which took effect in July — raised the energy-efficiency bar for desktop systems and notebooks.

Among other requirements, Energy Star-compliant systems must be set to power down after periods of not being used; consume a lower amount of wattage than the average system; and run at least 80 percent efficiency for the internal power supply.

The EPA also announced plans to develop an Energy Star program for servers, a task that is more difficult than establishing one for desktop systems, given the broader diversity of datacenter and server room machines.

Go, green power, go!

A number of companies poured some green into alternative energy sources this past year, and these investments ran the gamut. A new Web hosting company called Greenest Host trumpeted its plans to lease space at AISO.net, a datacenter facility that runs entirely on solar power. Rackspace announced plans to build a new datacenter in England that draws power directly from an alternative energy provider called Slough Heat and Power.

On the other end of the spectrum, Google completed an installation of 9,212 solar panels at its headquarters — and reaped a hefty sum of incentive money from California utility PG&E in the process. Meanwhile, Fujitsu installed Silicon Valley’s first hydrogen fuel cell generator.

All for green and green for all

The past year saw companies and organizations coming together in the name of sustainability. One of the most notable examples of companies uniting was the formation of The Green Grid, a self-proclaimed vendor-neutral consortium comprising IT heavyweight include Dell, Intel, AMD, Sun, Microsoft, HP, IBM, and many, many more. The group’s goal: driving new user-centric metrics, technology standards, and best practices for curbing power consumption.

In a similar vein, several high-profile tech companies joined organizations including the EPA, the World Wildlife Foundation, and other companies to create the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The group’s ambition is to set new targets for energy-efficient computers and components and to promote the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.

2007 also witnessed investors and business leaders calling on the government to fund green-tech development and to address global climate change.

Reuse, refurbish, recycle

Companies stepped up their system refurbishing and recycling efforts, touting both the financial benefits as well as the eco-friendly advantages of reusing materials.

Microsoft, for example, teamed with select PC-refurbishing outfits to ease the installation of Windows on pre-owned systems, ensuring buyers don’t get stuck with pirated, unsupported OSes.

Verizon, meanwhile, established a recycling and refurbishing program for phones, batteries, and accessories. Proceeds for Verizon’s HopeLine, as it’s called, go toward providing wireless phones and cash grants to shelters and nonprofit organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention and awareness.

Carbon emissions: Public gas enemy No. 1

The terms “carbon neutral” and “carbon footprint” garnered plenty of attention in the past year as companies took on carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases that were linked to their operations.

Approaches varied: Some companies opted to invest in controversial “carbon offsets”; that is, they poured cash into third-party projects aimed at fighting the effects of global warming.

Companies such as Dell, Xerox, IBM, and AMD also opted to tackle GHGs more directly, unveiling plans and successes in reduce their own energy consumption and associated emissions.

Moreover, organizations such as IBM, Microsoft, and Sun announced projects and tools to help companies measure their own carbon footprints.

The list of green-oriented developments goes on and on: More companies such as Wal-Mart revealed programs to make their supply chains greener, for example, while nonprofit organizations like Greenpeace scrutinized the eco-friendliness of IT vendors’ products and operations.

Given what we witnessed green-wise in 2007, it’s a very safe bet that the green movement is by no means a flash in the pan. Both the benefits and the need for more sustainable practices are evident: They’re good for business and the environment. Thus, 2008 will undoubtedly yield more technological innovations and internal efforts to save energy, cut waste, and reduce GHG emissions.

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.