Clean Money

Business competitiveness and globalization have fulfilled the needs of the

common man but they have also resulted in continued stress on energy resources.

The situation is now becoming alarming. Considering this and the long term

monetary benefits, companies are propelling toward the use of green solutions.

According to a recent report by McKinsy & Company, the Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) sector currently contributes 2% of the global

emissions. And the number will almost double by 2020. This can be countered by

the sector's unique ability to monitor and maximize energy efficiency, both

within and outside of its own sector, by cutting CO2 emissions by up to five

times.

There is a need to adopt such technologies and alternate sources of energy

that could help enterprises to track their carbon footprint and ensure

sustainable green businesses. Communication technologies are one of the tools

that orgenaizations are adopting to meet their green goal.

“As of now we have deployed Microsoft Office Communicator for all computer

enabled associates to be able to chat with each other individually as well as in

groups across the country. This helps us in our ability to connect and have a

discussion, which also can be saved and shared with others who did not

participate. We also use OC to manage remote support thereby eliminating the

need for travel of specialized resources, says Arun O Gupta, group CTO, Shoppers

Stop.

The GeSI's research report indicates that through enabling other sectors to

reduce their emissions, the ICT sector can bring even more powerful tools for

businesses to use while managing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting

challenging climate change targets.

“At BT our target is to reduce global carbon emissions intensity by 80% by

2020 and to actively engage 20% of our workforce by 2012 into activities focused

on addressing climate change,” says Arun Seth, chairman, BT India.

Smart Steps



In the present scenario, organizations and enterprises need to take

intelligent decisions to promote the use of renewable resources. For instance,

use of new technologies can reduce energy consumption and limit the need for

business trips, and replacing certain physical equipment with virtual services.

Shoppers Stop has introduced a program named Wah! or Work at Home. This

program is voluntary and encourages employees to work from home by enabling them

with the necessary tools to remain productive even when not in office.

Considering the growth opportunities in developed markets it is expected that

by 2020 a large population of developing countries will be able to afford ICT

devices. Supplementing ownership levels of developed countries, the developing

countries will account for over 60% of ICT's carbon emissions (compared to less

than half today) driven largely by growth in mobile networks and PCs.

In addition, trends like virtualization of data centers, long life devices,

and growth of renewable energy consumption could help to deliver future

sustainable growth.

“Going green can prove to be an advantage for telecom companies at two

levels-one it helps companies cut costs in the long run. Secondly it enables

them to be good corporate citizens by reducing their carbon footprint and

helping their customers do the same,” says Sanjay Vig, CEO, Orange Business

Services, India.

Similarly, Tulip has reduced its dependence on diesel generators. The company

has kick-started a 'Go Green' initiative to identify and act on possible

opportunity areas. Graduating to a number-based carbon emission reduction

program will take some time and the company is actively working on that front.

In 2004, British Telecom signed a contract for the supply of Green energy.

Nearly all the electricity the company uses in the UK now comes from renewable

sources or combined-heat-and-power schemes. The company also has low carbon

electricity supply contracts in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Ireland.

Elucidating his thoughts, Christopher T Lloyd, executive director, public

policy and corporate responsibility, Verizon Communications says, “As we

continue to deploy a broadband network, the opportunities for applications that

minimize environmental impact and enhance energy efficiency are greatly

increased.”

In 2008, Verizon has internal targets for reduction of electricity use within

its network and fuel for its fleet, but the company is not prepared to make them

public.

Further, enterprises can save a major chunk of money with the help of

teleconferencing and other e-communication services, reducing the need for

physical journeys and international travel.

“Beside being expensive, flights contribute to the depletion of the ozone

layer. If you fly from Delhi to Chennai and back, which is approximately 5 hours

of run, the carbon emission produced per person is equivalent to carbon emission

produced by a car in six months,” says Yugal Sharma, regional director, India &

SAARC, Polycom.

Enterprises acknowledge the benefit of videoconferencing and see it as a tool

to achieve their green target. “We use videoconferencing solutions across our

large stores to conduct regular meetings between the stores and the HQ. This

definitely helps in reducing the travel and associated costs. The solution works

quite effectively for us,”says Gupta of Shoppers Stop.

EMC has reduced its cost of operation by using TelePresence solution in its

headquarters. Since November 2007 it claims to have saved an estimated 3,000

hours of employee work time and $300,000 in travel expenses over the past nine

months.

CII has taken initiatives in India to set up pay-per-use centers with

TelePresence solution, that would be set up within CIIs facilities for the

benefit of its members. These centers would also be added to a larger network of

centers that will be established by Tata Communications across the country. Tata

Communications also recently rolled out TelePresence solutions on a hosted model

basis in collaboration with Indian Hotels, CII and Cisco.

Based on this benefit, companies providing videoconferencing solution are

pitching for carbon credits as it is given to companies using renewable sources

of energy.

Further, looking at the global use of electricity, the demand for electricity

is increasing at an incredible rate and as per industry forecasts, the total

electricity demand would be doubled in the next 25 years.

“We understand that there is still a long way to go to achieve optimal energy

efficiency, but we are definitely committed to taking steps to get there-on all

levels,” says Sanjay Jotshi, director, Channels & Enterprise, Juniper Networks.

As the government and operators are looking for further expansion in the

telecom domain, energy efficient products can help them reduce carbon emission

on their side.

Legal Tangle



Ironically, there are no stringent laws or regulations which can promote the

benefits of green technology. Even the basic rules have not been framed and it's

only responsible companies that are making some attempts in that direction. It

is definitely the call of the hour to put such regulations in place. Though

Indian companies are taking positive steps toward sustainable development, the

overall picture is not so rosy.

According to BT's Sustainable Index Report (SDI), while over 46% of India's

opinion leaders surveyed blame a lack of awareness around sustainable

development issues as the major cause of inaction, some 40% say that lack of

political will is a major obstacle to making significant progress in this area.

It further states that this lack of action means India will lag behind China,

Japan, and the European Union when it comes to addressing key issues, such as

tackling climate change, corporate governance practices and water resource

management.

Says Sethumadhavan Srinivasan, deputy director of network strategy &

marketing, Huawei Asia Pacific, “We need support from the government to develop

alternate sources of energy and give a boost to local manufacturing sources. As

we foresee energy as a major area of technology development, such an initiative

at a local level cannot sustain without sufficient government support in terms

of manufacturing sops, favorable tax regimes, etc.”

The company has introduced renewable energy solutions for mobile

communication sites, such as solar solutions, solar and wind hybrid solutions,

and solar and diesel hybrid solutions. These environmentally-friendly solutions

significantly reduce the total cost of ownership in the product life circle,

optimizing energy efficiency and bringing obvious benefits to operators.

Tightening the Belt



Local and global green initiatives are gaining serious commercial momentum

in the marketplace. And the companies are taking smarter steps to innovate and

understand the requirements. However, there are certain challenges that need to

be taken care of.

Says Vish Iyer,VP, service provider, West, Cisco India & SAARC, “Most small

and medium-sized businesses have neither the expertise nor the resources to

invest in Green IT solutions; they need guidance and support from partners. On

the other hand, large enterprises need advice around best practices and

innovation opportunities.”

Further, according to industry experts, there is no accurate way to measure

either the emissions or the carbon that is being saved elsewhere; also, there is

no single standard out there to appraise the quality of the claims for carbon

neutrality and the quality of the marketed offsets. The central and state

governments have been in the process of promoting green practices. There is

however a need for increased awareness for green technologies.

“Enterprises should adopt environmental friendly practices at work, take

steps to save resources and adopt recycled and environment friendly ecosystem at

work. On the policy front, they should encourage the use of cleaner technologies

by providing financial support to providers looking to implement cleaner

technologies,” says Deepinder Singh Bedi of Tulip telecom.

Also, it is very critical to educate decision makers within enterprises on

the benefits that green practices have to offer. It is imperative that they

should recognize the obligation and work accordingly to set the standards for

the company. In addition, there is a great amount of apprehension among

enterprises, as new strategies can imply some kind of downtime, even if short

term.

Jatinder Singh and Prasoon Srivastva



jatinders@cybermedia.co.in