Green IT: save money and save the planet!

Organisations are facing increasing IT challenges in today's cost and climate-sensitive conditions:

• how to maximise energy efficiency and reduce costs associated with power and cooling while maintaining the level of IT service expected by the organisation.
• how to balance flexible working requirements with shifting the burden of heating and lighting from one centralised office space to many less-efficient homes.
• whether increased use of virtualisation software enables reduction of hardware costs and office space.

Creating a Green IT policy isn't just about minimising your business's impact on the environment in the short term, it's about developing a long-term approach that identifies the key issues for industry and allows your organisation to safeguard both its economic future and the future of our planet.

To achieve this, companies need to understand how to maximise the potential of the technology in their business while creating a greener future. We believe that an important part of this is the people and skills within the organisation - one of the first steps to creating a green organisation is ensuring the support of its staff.

So how do you encourage your staff to think about environmental impact beyond switching off their monitor at the end of the day, or reducing printing? The best way to bring people on board is to give them the ability to create change: you need to make sure that people have a foundation level of skills that will enable businesses to take an effective approach to IT.

We have worked with the British Computer Society, the professional body for those working in IT, to develop a programme for an accredited qualification in Green IT.

How will a Green IT qualification help my organisation?

We're enabling businesses to take the right approach to their environment. We want people to be able to answer the questions of today in a way that is both cost-effective for their organisation and resource-conscious for us all. We will give your people the skills to create a strategy that will make a positive and long-lasting change to the way your business functions.

This qualification underlines the environmental credentials of your organisation, demonstrating to your clients and customers that you are putting best practice into place. Scoped and developed by subject-matter experts, the programme delivers a wide range of knowledge and skills across both IT strategy and implementation. Accreditation by the Information Systems Examination Board ensures that the qualification has a strong standing within the IT industry.

The British Computer Society has worked closely with us to support the development of the programme and Jeremy Barlow, Product Development Manager, explains why they see it as so important: "Organisations need to know how to comply with ever-tightening legislation, how they can create significant cost-efficiencies, and how to balance the internal and external economic drivers they face. We're confident that individuals will complete this qualification and be able to develop a strategy that will bring significant benefit to their business."