Greener Computing February 22, 2011
The ICT industry has a sizeable carbon footprint – on a par with the aviation industry at 2-3% of global carbon emissions. So it is no surprise that the Cabinet Office report (Greening Government ICT, 2009) contains recommendations applicable to all IT systems to make private businesses more ‘Green’, and it is reasonable to expect that initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions and to reduce the environmental footprint of UK businesses will continue.
The Isle of Wight’s leading IT and telecoms company, Navigate IT & Telecoms offers a number of recommendations and services to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint. These can save you both money and add to your green credentials:
Video Conferencing: Reduces the costs and time wasted whilst travelling to meetings and has the environmental benefit of reducing transport related CO2emissions. Navigate IT & Telecoms are experts in the supply and installation of video conferencing and teleconferencing equipment, including desktop sharing where presentations can be given and documents can be worked on by multiple parties in different locations. We can advise on the best solution to fit your budget and requirements.
Remote working : An easy way for users to reduce their carbon footprint, reducing transport related CO2emissions as well as reducing business overhead costs. Remote office connections – or VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) can be set up allowing remote users access to the documents on their server, as if they are in their office.
Hardware recycling: Due to EU legislation, the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment Directive (WEEE) stipulates strict legislation surrounding the disposal and destruction of old hardware. With Navigate IT & Telecom’s simple and hassle free service, you can arrange collection of anything from a hard drive, monitor to a photocopier or phone system via our website www.navigateit.co.uk. The recycling service ensures that data is securely destroyed, and that all possible components are recycled in accordance with legislation for the benefit of the environment. Navigate is the only IT & Telecoms company on the island to offer a recycling service and we have seen an excellent take up since the launch in 2010.
Green telephone lines, calls and broadband connections. Navigate IT & Telecoms partners with the only supplier of carbon neutral telephone lines, calls and broadband connections in the UK
Implementing Hardware Virtualisation: Hardware virtualisation is one of the next big things in I.T. It simply means that instead of having multiple computer systems, one for each job (e.g. Finance Server, Email Server etc), they are all consolidated on one system but separated from each other by a virtual ‘sandbox’ for them to operate in. This reduces business costs as less equipment needs to be purchased, less power and cooling is needed, and future flexibility is increased as new ‘virtual’ services can be added at very little cost. The environmental benefits are reduced CO2emissions and reduced use of raw materials. Navigate regularly implements virtualisation on behalf of its customers across the country.
Caroline Wood, Operations and Finance Director, commented “Navigate IT & Telecoms is entirely committed to helping businesses reduce their carbon footprints and is continually introducing new green initiatives across our extensive product range. We are happy to take any enquiries you may have regarding the purchase and implementation of greener systems for your business.”
Island based company Navigate IT & Telecoms has been operating since 2005, and now employs 12 people, and provides integrated IT & Telecoms consultancy services to small and medium sized businesses on the Isle of Wight and across the UK and Europe, enabling customers to have all their communications needs from one supplier.