Jon Rolls, ScriptLogic says that there are a number of policies that companies should take out to lower their carbon footprint

As companies throughout the country increasingly embrace green initiatives, from adopting recycling policies to reducing paper consumption, power management should be a key component to their eco strategy. The technology sector has an important role to play, with many software providers developing tools to help the IT department reduce their carbon footprint and therefore energy costs. Over time, investment in eco-friendly initiatives covering everything from recycling hardware, efficient datacenters and green building design, will become necessary. However, these initiatives that go above and beyond ‘greenwashing’ can take years of planning, and are costly to implement. So, what can IT administrators do in the meantime to ensure that they are taking steps to decrease operating costs within the department?

One of the easiest ways to lower energy costs, and directly influence a company’s energy bill, is to develop a power management strategy. Windows operating systems, as early as Windows 98, offered built-in power management capabilities at varying levels, and today most major PC manufacturers’ products are ENERGY STAR compliant.

Surprisingly many companies have procrastinated over centrally configuring Windows desktop power management because the benefits have not yet been fully recognised. Possible methods of power management – and reasons why these methods are not often used – include:

• Exercise your IT Team – Manually visiting each PC to ensure that it is turned off at the end of the day. Aside from being time consuming, this method lacks the ability to have the power management settings changed based on who logs onto a given machine and there is no way to ensure consistency across the enterprise.
• Scripting and Free Utilities – This method would require a power management utility that would be initiated by a script or scheduled task. The attraction is that this is ‘free’. However, scripting comes with inherent problems: writing, testing and debugging prior to the release of a simple change, syntax errors and lacking the granularity of selection required in enterprises. Maintenance of hand-coded scripts and utilities usually has a higher real cost than simply investing in a third party solution.
• Group Policies – With some work, administrators can develop Group Policies to initiate power management. But filtering the type of power management policy that users receive and creating exceptions is very difficult, and there is no ability to send warnings to users before taking power management actions.

But help might already be at hand – IT administrators may not realise it, but the software they use on a daily basis as a desktop configuration platform, can also be used to create policies to enforce power management. Solutions that offer power management capabilities allow administrators to easily create, modify or remove Windows power schemes, giving them centralised control over laptops, desktops and servers. Power saving options such as Standby/Hibernate and those that turn off monitors and disks, all add to the savings for both the environment and the company’s operating costs.

These settings make it possible for organisations to establish power settings across the enterprise, ensuring each and every desktop is participating and saving the company money. Additionally, software-based inactivity timers can be used to watch for inactivity and lock, logoff, shutdown or restart the PC as needed.

A good example of a company using software to implement a power management strategy includes a U.S.-based high school, Walla Walla in Washington.
Dennis Debroeck, Network Administrator at Walla Walla High School, uses ScriptLogic Desktop Authority’s power management and Inactivity Timer to conserve energy.  With Power Management, Debroeck was able to create and modify Windows power schemes, giving him centralised control over student desktops. Power saving options such as Standby/Hibernate and those that turn off desktops results in significant energy savings. The software monitors inactivity and will lock, logoff, shutdown or restart, as needed, even if students are not logged on, Debroeck can monitor machines after the school day ends. In addition to the conservation of energy, power management of only 28 desktop computers has helped Walla Walla High School save more than 2,000 dollars each year. More savings would be expected as the school’s IT network expands.

“The power management capabilities in Desktop Authority have helped to significantly reduce our energy costs,” said Debroeck. “At the end of each month, I can print of a report on how much energy the classroom has saved and share it with the school district’s energy manager.”

IT administrators should be implementing greener initiatives that can offer immediate energy and cost savings, while thinking about long term, cost effective methods that will save money and reduce their carbon footprint in the future.

A simple power management solution is just one of the ways in which a business can complement a greener initiative. Businesses should consider spending more in the short term to ensure better benefits and successes for years to come.