Kermit Says: “Green IT Is Green in Your Pocket”

“I don’t want to take on Kermit the Frog, but I don’t think it is tough being green if you are really committed to it,” said GSA ITS Assistant Commissioner John Johnson.

Being green takes a commitment. And while government has stepped up its efforts as a leader in implementing environmentally friendly practices, Johnson says to make a difference means "embracing change" right now.

“Behavior, behavior, behavior!” repeated Johnson. “Changing behavior is something we can do right now, today. Just think of the savings if everyone turned off their monitor.  That would be significant.”

Johnson made his comments during the Federal Executive Forum on Green Government produced by the Trezza Media Group and broadcast on Federal News Radio. (FEF Audio/Video)

Joining Johnson on the panel moderated by Jim Flyzik of The Flyzik Group were:

• Molly O'Neill, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information (OEI), Chief Information Officer (CIO), EPA

• Catherine Cesnik, Senior Program Manager, Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance, Department of the Interior

• Myra Galbreath, Chief Technology Officer, EPA

• Tom Simmons, Area Vice President for Federal Systems, Citrix

• Edward Vaccaro, Partner, Homeland Security, Federal Systems, Unisys

• Erin Rae Hoffer, Industry Program Manager, Autodesk

During the broadcast, EPA’s O’Neill and Galbreath both talked about how far green had come in government. Just a few short years ago, the focus was on recycling print cartridges, now the focus is on how to be green throughout the entire IT lifecycle.

“We think of this as a lifecycle,” says O’Neill. “Green is always a moving target. First it was print cartridges, then we focused on recycling desktops, now it is virtualization and we’re looking for ways to reduce the footprint.”

O’Neill explains the lifecycle is 4 parts:

1. Building a green facility

2. Making green acquisitions

3. Optimizing performance (and thus reducing power consumption)

4. Green disposal.

Thinking green in terms of lifecycle makes decisions more complex; now we are getting down to green for each individual component even down to the chip.

This cradle-to-grave approach is the heart-and-soul of the Electronic Stewardship program. According to EPA, this “program area addresses the life-cycle management of electronics from procurement to disposal.” You can find links, documents, and case studies at Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC), the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), and Energy Star.

When it comes to awareness, research shows global warming ranks second to terrorism Galbreath says. “That is awareness in the way we are using, buying and disposing of things. The network is the computer and we are all connected.”

Reducing your carbon footprint is what we are all striving for. Think about when we thought about computing being “always on”. But now a better thought might be computing at the “right time and right place, not anytime or anyplace” said Jim Flyzik.

“I’m feeling guilty now when I don’t turn off my computer at night,” confessed Flyzik. “Or even if I leave the power source in and am sucked up by “vampire” power consumption. (Vampire is when you leave power sources plugged in even though they are not connected to a device. They suck power even when plugged in.)

As a consumer, provider and consultant in this space, Unisys is keenly aware of its green responsibilities in the Data Center says Unisys’ Ed Vaccaro.  “Through a major green initiative and we reduced our carbon footprint by 67% and this is a data center we use for work that is outsourced to us including that from government.”

Vaccaro points out Unisys is taking those same experiences and technologies and offering to our clients. So, when working with government clients undergoing technology refreshes, Unisys is coming up with green strategies using virtualization and consolidation.

“It is a holistic approach where we look at computing management, power management and cooling management to reduce the overall energy consumption and carbon footprint at their sites,” says Vaccaro.

Citrix’s Tom Simmons agrees saying that the biggest impact we can have immediately is in reducing power and making the data center greener. “Telework initiatives, the expanded ability to support and deliver IT applications, virtualization and the dynamic data center are all strategies to reduce energy consumption and extend server life,” explains Simmons. “By extending the life of equipment on client side and by maximizing processing power at data center, we can leave a light footprint.”

Not knowing how to be green is something a lot of people struggle with says Autodesk’s Erin Rae Hoffer “The issue is that I don’t always know what the right thing is in terms of trying to be green or energy efficient.” Autodesk has been focusing internally on awareness and has staffed a group to specifically to look at internal processes of how we work. “We are looking to create messages to help our employees understand how to make their own decisions, because in the end, those individual decisions really add up to a huge impact.”

Rising To The Challenge

When it comes to Green IT, clearly demonstrating savings is a challenge; thus the need for metrics that give us some idea of how to approach these challenges and ROI issues that are sometimes logical in nature but hard to justify.

“From a challenge perspective, you really have to think about green IT from a life cycle perspective,” said EPA CIO Molly O’Neill. Read More

When everything seems so important, how do you prioritize what it is you should actually be doing? Well, that’s daily fare for those responsible for federal government Green IT efforts. So where are government and its Industry Partners putting their emphasis?

For Catherine Cesnik, Senior Program Manager, Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance, Department of the Interior the focus is on Energy Star implementation.

“That is one of the requirements of life cycle management. And we are determining what equipment we need to focus on. The goal is 100% target, so it is very aggressive,” says Cesnik. Read More

“EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment,” said EPA CIO Molly O’Neill.

O’Neill says EPA, like other government agencies and commercial companies is responsible for ensuring that IT investments are socially responsible, environmentally friendly, and fiscally sound. She is very proud of what EPA is doing to further Green IT.

“EPA is a leader in this and we are a proud Gold Award winner for the Federal Electronic Stewardship model, an accredited program addressing the purchasing, use and disposal and recycling of IT equipment,” explained O’Neill. Read More