Green IT Expo - Westminster, London

An interesting few days in London at the Green IT Expo discovering some of the innovations being used to help reduce carbon emissions of the IT industry.

It has to be said that some of the local events like clear about carbon were much more beneficial and ensured a sense that Cornwall are one of the innovators in reducing carbon emissions in business.

Carbon management is an emerging sector in  its own right and many business leaders, myself included, feel its about doing whats right rather than overcomplicating things with potentially skewed metric analysis. 

There is a need for clarity when reporting any environmental statistics and, in the long term, this will become more important as the industry settles and companies need to show their carbon commitment to be considered for contracts.  In the mean time there are a lot of steps we can all take to take some emissions away from our computer systems and we shouldn't loose sight of this.

One very simple fact I discovered and will share in its self will take tonnes of our 'carbon bill' so here goes...

"The optimum operational temperature for a data centre (server cabinet) is 26 degrees celcius."

Don't believe me?  Google it. 

For some reason the de facto seems to be to set the air con to its coolest setting, usually 18 degrees.  Any time I've ever asked why, the answer always remains the same, "Thats what our IT guy's recommended".  Now I'm not an expert in thermo dynamics but I know at least three of my customers who from this point on are going to save a lot of money and carbon by turning the thermostat up.