Green IT Blog!!!

Presenting the results of the first ever survey of companies across India to map the levels of green awareness and implementation.

‘Greener business, healthier bottom line’ was the theme for the first ever Green IT event organized by Dataquest towards the end of 2007. The event was hosted in 3 cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore keeping in mind the rising interest levels on green and to promote a discussion on it. During the a panel discussion on ‘Energy Management Issue’ in one of the cities, there was much debate and discussion on green not from the esteemed panellists sitting on board but from the delegates that had turned up in large numbers. One of the biggest grouse of the innumerable CIOs present on that occasion was that there was not much literature or discussion on green from a holistic purpose. “We do get to read on green, but it is usually comes with a lot of hard sell,” was a common refrain.

Keeping in mind the wishes of the enterprise community and the need of the hour, Dataquest decided to come out with a regular feature on green within the magazine itself, that was to be published every alternative issue. Though, green features were regularly carried within the magazine like most others, but it was for the first time anyone had specifically set aside whole section for green coverage.

In the year gone by, month after month, Dataquest touched upon numerous issues that required immediate or long-term attention, be it green electronics, green buildings, carbon emissions, green datacenter, green software, renewable energy, etc. For the first time, there was substantial green coverage from a domestic perspective, and not just reprinting of reports and features from foreign mags. Dataquest had indeed taken the lead in terms of engaging the Indian enterprise community on the green agenda.
Thus, it was only fitting that the first ever comprehensive survey on green readiness was conducted under the aegis of Dataquest itself. After almost a year of constant coverage, numerous outreach events, time was ripe to know the level of ‘greenliness’ among Indian enterprises. Over a period of few months, a survey was conducted by a professional agency, spanning across cities. The mandate given out was simple and terse: discovering the ground scenario on green.

The DQ Green Survey, for the first time maps the level of awareness levels of Indian enterprises on Green IT, their perceptions, the challenges faced and the stage of implantation. This survey gives a complete snapshot of how green India Inc. is or is turning into.

India Inc. wakes to Green IT
Everything starts with hype, is what any analyst will tell you. For a technology or trend to take shape, the first stage is to find takers for it. It can only happen when there is mass interest for it. Green IT is a buzzword in the West and has already progressed beyond the ‘hype’ stage, as is evident from the kind of work and research that is happening on that front. Thus, to know whether Green IT will find its ground in India, one of the most basic aspects and also the starting point of the survey was to check the awareness levels of it in Indian enterprises. Over the past few quarters there have been a slew of reports that have been released and advertising blitzkrieg done by vendors on the issue of Green IT, hence it was important to check the awareness levels.

The result was fairly encouraging as close to 69% of the respondents admitted that they were aware of the Green IT.  This is a heartening find, as it proves that there is a high amount of interest on the issue. Not surprisingly the awareness levels were higher in the MNCs with some 77% admitting to know about the issue. But it is interesting to note the high awareness levels among the PSUs, some 76% of them said that they were of Green IT.  Another interesting thing to note is that the awareness levels was the highest among the companies with annual revenues of Rs. 50-100 crore, around 79%. Big companies, with annual revenues of over Rs. 500 crore, came next.

Thus the results are conclusive, the hype and hoopla around Green IT seems to be working, as the awareness levels are fairly high. But that leads us to the next question, so what if the awareness levels are high are there any takers for the same? Indeed mere awareness is no surety of whether the CIO will be implementing Green IT within his company.

Hence, as a corollary, we tested the perception of respondents towards Green IT; did they think it was hype, reality, necessity, or none of that? The results again were fairly substantial, as a significant amount of people (around 65%) felt that Green IT was a reality and a necessity. Again and rather surprisingly, it was the PSUs that showed the most maturity on the issue, with some 52% of them stating that Green IT was a necessity. Of all the respondents, some 8% debunked Green IT as hype, and some 27% still seem to be undecided on it.

That means that even though the awareness levels are fairly high, there is still a lot of ambiguity around the issue of Green IT. This is chasm between awareness and perception is the next big challenge in front of India Inc., vendors, media, analysts, will now need to talk of specific benefits rather than merely talking of mundane. 

In fact when the companies were asked to rank the importance of Green IT, as most important, very important, important and little important. Most of them chose ‘very important’, followed by an even split between ‘most important’ and ‘important’.  This again underlines the above finding, that even when companies are aware of the green issues, they are not sure how pertinent it is for them.

It’s all about Money, honey
Thanks to so much talk about the environment nowadays, there is a earnest debate as to what is driving factor behind the rising awareness levels for issues like Green IT.  There are basically two schools of thoughts on this matter, according to one it the economics that is driving up the awareness and also the adoption, while the other plumbs for social responsibility as the primary driver.

In a rapidly developing economy like India, environment and social responsibility usually take a back seat to issues like growth and scale up. But, with burgeoning growth and crumbling infrastructure, organizations have realised that they need to achieve high productivity from the same or even lesser resources. This has led to better utilization of technology and this is also evident from the high number of respondents, some 78%, claiming that reducing costs is the biggest motivating factor for going green. It is obvious that with the increasing costs of resources, most importantly power and real estate, the CIO seems to have taken on some of the responsibilities of the CFO as well. And this is the very area where Green IT scores, it is not merely a way to green but a healthy one.

Yet again, on this issue as well, it is the PSUs that steal the limelight, with some 83% claiming that reducing costs is the primary motivation. This is quite interesting as for long, PSUs have been painted as a jaded and opulent enterprises, where monetary concerns are the last thing on the mind of a CIO. That is certainly not the case anymore. Meanwhile the MNCs also seemed to be keen on Green IT to create an environment-friendly workplace, some 41% described as a big motivator, though this was the lowest concern for the PSUs.

But, wait a minute even with the obsession to cut down on costs, the organizations have not lost sight of their larger role. As environmental issues and corporate social responsibility were the 2nd and 3rdmotivating factor for Green IT, with compliance and corporate image being tied on the 4th place. Thus, it will be a fallacy for someone to debunk environmental concerns, while there is little doubt that even as money is the primary mover for Green IT, organizations are no less concerned about the environmental impact.

Perceptions on Green
Well, it was heartening to know that a vast majority of Indian enterprises both from the private sector to the public sector were aware about the need to go green, and attached fairly high importance to it. But, what exactly is Green IT? Is it putting new blade servers in the data centre? Going in for virtualization? Or configuring desktops to go to sleep mode, once they are no more in use? To be honest, there is no one single definition of Green IT, it is more of a journey than a destination, a journey that makes an organization more efficient and agile.

To know how exactly do Indian enterprises perceive Green IT, respondents were asked to listen down their beliefs twice, the difference in the first instance they were unaided and in the second instance they were shown a lists of steps and then asked to prioritize them. Whenever some one is asked to list down a set of things in a prioritised order, they often share what’s there on the top of the mind. But when shown a list of options, the mind starts to reason. Thus through this two-pronged approach, we were able to decipher as to what the respondents instinctively believed to be Green IT and what they reasoned to be Green IT. The basic idea behind this technique was to arrive at what really constituted as green at these organizations.
On listing the top 5 perceptions from the two, one gets an interesting story.  Energy efficiency is at the top of the mind of the organizations. When unaided, in fact 3 of the top 5 perceptions relate to power management of the PCs, the next two things is to reduce server power and e-waste management.

When the respondents were aided, i.e., shown a list of steps that enable green within an organization, almost suddenly data centre gained prominence. This time round 3 of the top 5 concerns were around data centre. The top 2 were still related to PC energy management.
This shows that at the top of the agenda for the CIOs across all the energy efficiency, they are still grappling with it. The sudden emergence of data centre in the aided list also points out that due to much publicity it has gained prominence among the community, hence when the list was shown, it suddenly dawned upon them that it was an important aspect. Nonetheless, virtualization still languished at the bottom of the table, implying that not many enterprises associate virtualization with green.

Another interesting finding is the differences in the way different segments, namely organizations types, perceive Green IT. For instance, the PSUs seemed to be more concerned with data centre, as reducing server power consumption and upgradation of data centre cooling was the among the top three concerns. Meanwhile the MNCs and private companies seem to be more inclined towards power management at the user end, as PC power management, was the top priority.  This could also be due to the fact, most of the PSUs have larger IT infrastructure at the back-end, rather than at the user level, while that is not case with MNCs and private companies.

Implementation of Green
Next on the survey menu card, was the actual implementation levels of Green IT within the organization. Respondents from across the verticals were asked to list down the steps taken by them to go green. Questions ranged from configuring desktops to go to sleep mode to regular monitoring of carbon footprint. The companies were asked to respond on a 5-point scale, ranging from ‘we have already implemented (high level) to ‘don’t really have any plans’ (low level). The different questions in the survey were inter-related and grouped in a certain way to discover at what level of Green IT implementation was the organization as of now.

Using statistical tools like factor and cluster analysis (Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.  Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization), the responses were grouped under different headings, namely starting from the very basic steps of Green IT, that is PC/Laptop power management to higher levels like E-waste/ Recycling, data center and server management, green building initiatives, vendor management and employee initiatives.  An analysis of the different groupings provides an idea of the level of implementation and preparedness.

PC/Laptop Power Management

Power management on the PC/laptop end is undoubtedly at the very basic of green. Any implementation of green within the organization usually starts from this end, as PCs are configured to go to sleep mode, or users are asked to switch off the desktops and monitors when they leave from work. The advanced steps on the same front, is to install power management software and promotion of CFD techniques for energy efficiency.

One look at the graphs reveals the complete story. Most of the companies have either implemented or are in the process of implementing green steps, over 60% of the companies have configured the desktops to go into sleep mode and around the same number have asked the employees to turn off the desktop and monitors at night. There is a drastic dip in the numbers as we move up the scale, with lower number of organizations having installed power management software at the user end and much lesser talk of using CFD techniques.

Within the group as well, there is not much difference in the way MNCs, private limited companies or PSUs have undertaken power management steps. The same is indicative that the organizations are currently starting off on their green journey, and in the near future at least there will be much awareness in terms of power management at the user level, at least. Once that is in place, companies will be able to move to the next level that is using CFD techniques for energy mapping, etc.

Managing E-waste

One of the biggest issues plaguing India is that of management of e-waste. Much of the problem arises from the fact that a lot of developed countries dump their electronic waste in India, creating a bio hazard. But that does not take away the fact that India itself is now generating a lot of electronic waste. Outdated PCs and peripherals are usually dumped at local junkyard, and new machines are brought in.

On being queried on the issue, a lot many organizations mentioned that they were in the process of going in for e-waste take back agreement with IT vendors. But the worrying fact is that close to 40% haven’t given the matter much thought or don’t have any plans to implement it. This negative figure rises as we move further, with over 60% saying that they haven’t thought or just won’t tie-up with NGOs or e-waste companies for processing the waste. And in-house recycling of hardware is also something that is not on the top of the agenda, with close to 46% falling in the negative band.

Ironically, or rather sadly, e-waste seems to be a rather mindset issue, as there is not much difference in the way companies across the spectrum are dealing with it. Though MNCs are marginally ahead when it comes to formulating a take-back plan, they seem to be as loathe tying up with NGOs for waste management.

This is a worrying trend, as it indicates that not many organizations are paying attention to the issue, especially when you consider it in the Indian perspective.  Also the fact that there are no rules and regulations relating to the same might be another factor that plays a role in this context. Looking at the scenario now, one is certain that outward looking companies, namely IT service companies and BPO are the ones that seem to have woken to the issues, whereas domestic companies still seem to the ignorant of the same. Hopefully, that will change once there is some legislation on that front in the near future.

Data center and server management

Data centers as have been mentioned time and again in different features carried in our magazine and other studies, are big guzzlers of power. A major chunk of this power is spent on cooling the servers. Thus there are different aspects of data center management that an organization can look into for greater efficiency.

On looking at the results, there seems to be fair understanding and movement on this front. Again this could be borne out of the result of the constant bombardment of the same by the hardware vendors that often tout their wares under the green garb. Without doubt, much attention has been paid on this issue by the hardware vendors, and this could be the reason that it features prominently.

PSUs continue to maintain a clear lead when it comes to implementation of technologies around datacenter, in fact close to 48% have already virtualized their servers, which is pretty high when compared to 29% by MNC firms and 20% of private companies.

The coming of Green Buildings

Buildings are one of the most dubious aspect of green, as they are passive and hence don’t seem to be pollutants and yet according to international reports account for close to 8% of global emissions. The ‘glass dabbas’ (how RK Pachauri refers to them) are much cause of concern as they require immense cooling, thereby resulting in excess spending of energy on HVAC. Fortunately, over the years there has been much progress on that front, thanks to all those LEED rated buildings and complexes that are coming up across the length and breadth of India.

At the base level, companies seem to have readily adopted CFL lamps over incandescent bulbs, with over 70% saying that they have installed it already or will be installing soon. Even data center power supply seems to have merited significant traction as over 60% of companies have put in solutions or are in the process of doing so.

Nonetheless, while there is a lot of talk around nowadays of going carbon neutral or even climate neutral, this is certainly not on the immediate horizon of Indian companies, as over 60% haven’t given much thought or won’t be doing anything about it. Still, as we move forward as a nation and inevitably have to take carbon emissions caps, etc. the numbers will rise. And surely the 37% that are already monitoring the carbon footprint or in the process of doing so, will inspire others to do so.

Vendor issues

In advanced countries, a lot of premium is attached to green products, but that is certainly not the case in India yet. Much of the decisions on purchase of equipment still seems to be driven by the cost factor.  And as much as 50% of the organizations said that they would not be giving any premiums to green product suppliers.  This is also evident from the fact that over70% of the respondents mentioned cost as the biggest challenge in sourcing green products.

It is the PSUs that for the first real time seem to be dragging their feet on this issue and dont seem to have woken up to the new reality, with over 56% listing in the negative band. The big reason could be the fact that much of the contracts are still awarded in the archaic tendering method, that favors the lowest bidder. Hopefully, since a lot of the PSUs are also looking to earn money through the means of CDM, etc. they would have to pay attention to this aspect as well.

One of the indicators of the change is the %age of budgetary allocation for Green IT with close to 70% mentioning that they are allocating over 5% of their IT budgets to make Green IT related purchases.

Engaging the employee

Engaging the employee is one of the most important aspects of growing green, as unless the employee is not motivated or aware of his responsibilities not much changes can take place. While traditionally, Indian enterprises have been rather staid in engaging the employees on such issues, be it green or even CSR. But the trend seems to be changing, as quite a few of the companies admit to be paying attention to the need to engage the employees.

Internationally, green is being merged into the CSR objective, as companies of the like of Google, Dell, GM, Microsoft and others talking about the ecological impact of their operations. Indian firms have been traditionally shy of CSR, more akin to talk about corporate philanthropy, but over 40% of the companies are indeed looking at green from the CSR perspective, maybe they are taking the cue from international firms.

Other things Green

Beyond all these, there are a lot of things and aspects that fall under the green ambit. There are a host of issues that are responsible for a company to go green, one of the biggest trend noticed in India is that still green usually comes from the top. The firms and companies that are adopting green in a major ways, are using doing so at the behest of the passionate head honcho, one of the most obvious example is that of Wipro and Infosys.  Even though, TCS is the largest IT firm in India, it hasn’t really adopted green like the other two, simply because the mandate needs to come from the top. That is also the case with quite many firms in India, unless it comes from the top not much happens otherwise.

Another heartening fact is that there is an increasing levels of awareness about green standards within the corporate sector. As many of the companies are obsessed with cutting costs, Energy Star seems to be the most popular ones, but there is still a long way to go as close to a quarter of the correspondents stated that they were unaware of any of the green standards.

In Conclusion
Any major feat cannot be accomplished in isolation. Similarly, it is to our scores of readers, to whom we are indebted for guiding and appreciating the green cudgel picked up by us. At the risk of sounding pompous, 67% of the respondents of this survey (that by the way represent the whos who of India Inc.) stated that they liked the green coverage in the magazine and found it worthwhile.  That is really a big pat on the back.

It does not take a prophet to know that the road ahead is indeed green. Through choice or compulsion, Indian Inc. will have to adopt green measures in the years to come.  Fortuitously, the year 2008, in which we keenly started focussing on green, was designated the International year of Planet Earth.  And now, as we move into 2009, let’s paint it green and dub it the Year of Green IT. Here’s wishing you a prosperous green year ahead.

Shashwat DC
shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in