Whitehall IT to be carbon neutral by 2020

The government has announced plans to make Whitehall's computer systems wholly carbon neutral by 2020 by adopting various green IT strategies, including automatically powering down PCs, configuring virtual servers and selective deployments of thin client technology.

The Cabinet Office's Greening Government ICT report states energy consumption on the government estate has not been falling as much as expected, and IT is identified as a "certain contributor" - being responsible for around a fifth (20 per cent) of the 460,000 tonnes of carbon emissions generated in central government offices.

Green IT from A to Z

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A is for Abroad
B is for Blades
C is for Carbon footprint
D is for Data centres
E is for Energy sources
F is for Freecycle
G is for Government
H is for Homeworking
I is for Ice caps
J is for Jobs (Steve)
K is for Kilowatts
L is for Landfill
M is for Mercury
N is for Nanogeneration
O is for Offsetting
P is for Paperless office
Q is for Queen
R is for Recycling
S is for SmartPlanet.com
T is for Travel
U is for Upgrade
V is for Virtualisation
W is for WEEE
X is for Xmas
Y is for You
Z is for Zero emissions

The plan is to make the energy consumption of government IT carbon neutral by 2012 - with the longer term goal of ensuring it is carbon neutral throughout its entire lifecycle, including manufacture and disposal, by 2020.

According to the report: "ICT is already pervasive in government buildings and across industry via outsourced government contracts. Office equipment is the fastest growing energy user in the business world. The Carbon Trust estimates that it consumes 15 per cent of the total electricity used in offices, expected to rise to 30 per cent by 2020, with around two-thirds of the energy consumed by office equipment being attributed to computers."

The plan describes 18 guideline strategies to cut IT carbon emissions, which will be adopted by the Cabinet Office immediately and implemented by other central government departments in due course.

The guidelines include: removing active screensavers from desktop PCs; switching monitors to standby after five minutes inactivity; automatically shutting down desktop computers outside working hours; reusing as much computer equipment as possible; reducing the numbers of printers used and setting default 'green' print modes such as duplex printing; and auditing data centres and server use to make sure they are running at maximum efficiency.

A variety of measures for optimising servers are detailed in the report, including storage virtualisation and configuring virtual servers to reduce hardware and support costs and decrease energy requirements.

Mobile device consolidation also features as a green strategy, with the report advising: "Rather than a mobile phone and a PDA (e.g. BlackBerry), use a single integrated device and 'follow-me' services."

Thin client technology is flagged as having potential to reduce energy consumption, maintenance and support costs - although the report also warns "additional energy is required to support the greater bandwidth necessary for connection to its server as well as to run the server and its supporting air-conditioning equipment".

Any remaining departmental IT emissions will be offset - via carbon offset tree planting schemes and the like, according to a Cabinet Office spokesman.

Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson said in a statement: "Worldwide, computers are responsible for the same quantity of carbon emissions as the airline industry. It is a serious problem that requires a serious solution. We won't achieve this just by offsetting but by making serious changes to the way we do business."

Watson added the government hopes the green strategies will spread beyond Whitehall - to the private sector and individual citizens.

Radical cutbacks on the use of IT are not part of the strategy, as the report says technology is "a key enabler for most Transformational Government programmes".

IT should also play a major role in reducing emissions elsewhere in government by enabling more work to be done remotely by use of technologies such as videoconferencing, or by ramping up remote and homeworking, the report adds.

Andrew Lee, CEO of the Sustainable Development Commission, welcomed the "radical target", adding in a statement: "The Cabinet Office has already demonstrated how simple changes can deliver huge carbon savings, and we hope this initiative will go much further, taking a fundamental look at how IT is designed and configured for the future."