Greenstone Bolsters Carbon Accounting Suite With The Launch Of Green IT – A New Tool To Audit IT Estates

…Carbon accounting tool facilitates IT infrastructure scenario planning and strategic reduction of energy consumption… 

Monday 14th September 2009 - Greenstone Carbon Management, the global specialist carbon solutions company, has announced today the launch of Green IT, an addition to its Acco2unt carbon accounting suite*. Green IT allows large organisations to accurately audit and rationalise their IT estate – such as desktop computers, servers, peripherals and data centre appliances - for energy efficiency and carbon emissions. It offers a detailed view of the energy consumption of complex IT infrastructures and allows organisations to accurately report their carbon emissions for mandatory emissions trading schemes such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment[1].

Green IT is based on the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) protocol methodology so it conforms to internationally recognised standards in carbon measurement.  It also builds on Greenstone’s existing suite of carbon accounting tools, known as Acco2unt. Acco2unt helps organisations to drill down to data on specific emission sources from anywhere in the enterprise, to perform comparative analysis and to help model carbon emission reduction policies. Green IT provides the additional functionality of helping the organisation to analyse the relative impact of individual IT infrastructure components on the organisation’s overall carbon footprint.

Ram Ramachander, Chief Operating Officer at Greenstone Carbon Management, said: “It is incredibly difficult for global organisations to get an accurate view of the energy consumption and carbon emissions of their IT infrastructures. Many organisations still rely on Excel spreadsheets and this method just isn’t reliable or practical to update. Green IT has been specifically developed to help large organisations gain meaningful information about their IT estate and enable them to develop practical strategies to tackle carbon emissions. Accurate reporting allows management teams to make informed decisions about future IT infrastructure changes and upgrades, and helps them understand which IT investments will provide the greatest reductions in energy consumption.  Furthermore, these detailed and timely reports will help organisations avoid the heavy fines and other penalties potentially incurred by providing inaccurate information to mandatory reporting schemes.”

Organisations whose half-hourly metered electricity use in the UK is above 6,000 mega watts per year are scheduled to receive qualification packs in September 2009 - ahead of the April 2010 carbon reporting scheme start date.  This will require organisations to calculate their energy use, buy an emissions allowance for each tonne of C02 emitted and surrender these allowances to government.

Ramachander adds: “As well as simplifying the auditing process for large organisations, we also see Green IT assisting many IT vendors and systems integrators as the tool can quickly model the impact of upgrading or replacing IT equipment on energy consumption and carbon emissions. This information can form a key part of decision-making process, particularly if reducing energy consumption is one of the prospective client’s primary requirements.”

Greenstone is accredited by the Carbon Trust to provide specialist carbon management strategies and solutions that help private and public sector organisations manage their climate change risks within a commercial context.  Greenstone’s consulting team includes experts with a blend of capabilities covering scientific and commercial skills in sectors such as IT, automotive, travel and leisure, building and property, utilities, financial services, FMCG and retail. 

A video interview with Ram Ramachander, Chief Operating Officer at Greenstone Carbon Management can also be accessed on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/GCMgmt  where he talks in more detail about this announcement and the challenges facing organisations today.