Redemtech Introduces Sustainable Computing Initiative

Redemtech, a Columbus, Ohio-based provider of technology change management (TCM) and IT asset disposition (ITAD) services, has launched a Sustainable Computing initiative, a combination of services and market education programs designed to help large organizations take a more comprehensive and sustainable approach to reducing the environmental impact of their information technology systems.

Additionally, the company has announced the release of a Redemtech-sponsored IDC White Paper, “Beyond Power: IT’s Roadmap to Sustainable Computing,” available at www.redemtech.com/beyondpower.

This white paper provides a roadmap for implementing a more comprehensive approach to information technology that can reduce the environmental footprint of these assets while delivering a measurable and repeatable return on investment, according to Redemtech. The white paper brings together best practices to establish a roadmap for moving toward more sustainable approach to IT management that addresses environmental, social and security targets, while also providing recurring gains for the bottom line.

“While reducing data center energy consumption has been the low-hanging fruit in the pursuit of corporate environmentalism, this goal needs to be accomplished within the context of a more comprehensive approach to green IT,” David Daoud, a research manager with IDC and one of the  lead authors of “Beyond Power,” says. “We believe the opportunities to reduce costs and environmental footprint through sustainable computing practices will ultimately dwarf those available through a program focused only on energy consumption. This is the next phase in the evolution of Green IT.”

Redemtech has identified multiple opportunities to significantly reduce IT’s environmental impact through policies and processes directed at the acquisition, management and retirement of desktop computers and laptops.

Sustainable computing emphasizes the value of reducing the demand for new technology by extending equipment life cycles; reusing assets when possible through redeployment, remarketing or charitable donation; and ensuring a zero-landfill, zero-export, zero-incineration, zero-prison labor approach to responsible recycling.

Efforts to support the sustainable computing initiative include:

• Development of a self-assessment tool to be launched in October 2008 that is designed to allow organizations to quickly audit current asset management practices to identify opportunities to achieve the greatest reductions in environmental impact.
• Working with the U.S. Government Accounting Office to call attention to practices by some recycling companies that are dumping e-scrap overseas.
• Working with the Basel Action Network to develop and support higher standards for environmental recycling that will divert more electronics from the waste stream and reduce the amount of hazardous materials entering landfills.
• Release of an analysis of computer life cycle costs that reveal that for every $1,000 in original cost, moving from a three-year to a four-year life cycle generates savings of approximately $325. When lifecycles are extended to 4.5 years, the savings increase to nearly $500. In addition, the company has used the U.S EPA’s Environmental Benefits Calculator to determine the impact of reusing, rather than disposing of assets that have been idled by organization or personnel changes. Reusing 1,000 desktop computer systems creates a carbon offset equivalent to the energy required to power 681 homes for a year and the greenhouse gasses produced by 481 cars in a year.

More  information on Redemtech’s sustainable computing initiatives, capabilities and achievements is available at www.redemtech.com/sustainablecomputing.