Chris Vein began studying the impact of information technology on the environment after seeing Al Gore speak at a World Environment Day conference in 2005. Soon after, the CIO for the city and county of San Francisco learned an inconvenient truth about IT: Approximately 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions are related to manufacturing, distribution and use of information and communications technology, according to research firm Gartner.

"I started realizing that as head of a large technology department, there are things I could do," Vein said. "When I became CIO, I decided green IT initiatives would be one of the core projects of my tenure."

With backing from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the city in 2006 became part of the Connected Urban Development Initiative sponsored by Cisco Systems. The networking giant is committing $15 million over five years to offer expertise, equipment and research to Seoul, South Korea; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and San Francisco to measure the environmental impact of IT infrastructure and take steps to reduce the pollution footprint.

Vein's first job is taking an inventory of the city's IT infrastructure as a base line, so he and his staff can assess the impact of potential changes.

"We CIOs are very good at starting projects like this without beginning and end points to determine whether we have been successful or not," Vein said. "We were already doing an inventory of what and where our equipment is, so we decided to take the next step and try to estimate what energy it's consuming."

The city and county of San Francisco also needs a new data center, and Vein is studying what it will take to design one. "We're working with consultants who understand green IT to help us understand the pitfalls and trade-offs. It's important to find good partners," he said. "You have to delve below the glossy brochures and really look at the numbers."

 
Still Lacking Urgency
Few public-sector CIOs are as proactive as Vein on green IT initiatives. Some IT executives haven't put a high priority on environmental concerns - unless political leaders in their jurisdictions are vocal proponents of change. In many public-sector settings, CIOs are being nudged toward green IT initiatives by sustainability teams and environmental departments that include electronics equipment in larger waste-reduction efforts.

Energy and pollution concerns - especially in fast-growing data centers - have taken on a higher profile recently. A 50,000-square-foot data center uses approximately 4 megawatts of power, or the equivalent of 57 barrels of oil a day, according to Sun Microsystems.

Energy efficiency is about the environment; it's also about saving money. Many organizations are cutting costs and energy consumption by consolidating data centers through server virtualization (see Virtually Served), which can allow data centers to cut back from 50 servers operating at only 10 percent efficiency to five servers running at 80 percent efficiency. Virtualization software vendor VMware suggests the energy cost savings of virtualization can be approximately $500 to $600 per server each year.

Despite the prospect of savings - to the bottom line and for the environment - some CIOs are reluctant to push green IT.

The level of concern about a data center's energy use may depend upon a CIO's duties, said Drue Reeves, vice president and research director for data center strategies at the Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group. In some cases, the IT department is totally unaware of energy costs. "If the CIO doesn't have any responsibility for facilities, there still may be a disconnect," Reeves said, "but many are responsible for building out new data centers, and energy is their No. 1 concern."

Larry Goldenhersh, president and CEO of Enviance Inc., a company in Carlsbad, Calif., that helps power companies measure and report greenhouse