Channel urged to get behind green scheme

Resellers are set to benefit from a newly created not-for-profit organisation that plans to create a one stop online resource of information on the energy efficiency of IT products.

The Green Technology Initiative aims to become a knowledge resource for IT managers and directors wishing to improve the environmental impact of their IT infrastructure. Founding members include managed services provider Carrenza, vendors Cisco and Global Crossing, EDF Energy, and Saatchi & Saatchi Interactive.

Jonathan Heastie, marketing chair of the Green Technology Initiative, said: “I work for Carrenza and we began a pursuit to find the most energy efficient equipment, but found there was a lack of information available. So we decided to work with our vendors to collate information on how energy efficient products are. We are now opening this up to the whole industry.”

The initiative will concentrate on the environmental impact of powering, cooling and operating IT equipment, and aims to educate and demonstrate how companies can change working practices, improve the efficiency of devices and use existing technology to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions. In some cases even avoid the negative impact technology has on the environment, according to Heastie.

“Once we’ve collated enough information we’ll put it on our web site and VARs can tap into that as a knowledge resource to educate both themselves and their customers on the most energy efficient products,” he added.

Fausto Amorosa, director of marketing at VAR Affiniti, said: “We’d be very interested in looking at this initiative. We recently joined The Green Grid, which is a US organisation set up to look at ways of reducing the power consumption in data centres. We’re also looking at building green communication solutions for customers.”

David Pollock, chief executive of Chess, said: “I think this initiative will be useful for us and our customers. Internally we have just launched a Chess Green Team, which is six people whose task it is to look at ways for Chess to reduce its impact on the environment.”

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