A white paper that discusses various ways that technology is delivering green benefits to government -- including the value of online services in reducing paper flow and eliminating vehicle traffic for in-person office visits.

1. Simply Green
A Few Steps in t he Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT
A G r e e n P a p e r f r o m t h e C e n t e r f o r D i g i t a l G o v e r n m e n t

2. 2 Simply Green

3. Table of Contents
Executive Summary: Simple Steps 4
Introduction: Occam’s Razor 6
Step 1: Rules and Regulations 8
Step 2: Operational Optimization 13
Step 3: Acquisition and Disposal of Technology 17
Step 4: Home as the New Workplace 19
Conclusion: Stepping up to Simple Steps 21
Endnotes 22

4. Executive Summary:
Simple Steps
“The question of how you persuade people that [climate Inconvenient Truth” and the Live Earth concerts, 2007
change and sustainability] is to do with them is a very may be best remembered as a tipping point in envi-
interesting one…. We need to know whether people’s at- ronmental consciousness, complete with considerable
titudes are the consequence of ignorance, disbelief or per- attention to the greening of IT.
sonal self-interest and inertia. Even among those who do
For his part, author Thomas L. Friedman, whose
know about climate change, there is a yawning gap be-
major works on globalization — The Lexis and the
tween what people say and what they do. I don’t think
Olive Tree and The World is Flat — became recom-
there is any simple answer.”
mended or even required reading in large swaths of
John Leaman, Former Head of Research, state and local government, staked a claim for a new
Ipsos MORI Environment Research Team1 form of green economics. In an aptly titled essay in
the New York Times Magazine called “The Power of
There may be no single, simple answer to the com-
Green,” Friedman writes about the need to reclaim
plex issue of climate change. Yet there are simple
green as a brand: “I want to rename it geostrategic,
steps that the public sector IT community can take
geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do
in responding to renewed concerns about environ-
that because I think that living, working, designing,
mental sustainability while institutionalizing greater
manufacturing and projecting America in a green way
efficiencies into its operations.
can be the basis of a new unifying political movement
Those simple steps are the focus of this “green paper” for the 21st century.”3
— published primarily as a downloadable digital
Friedman is no more the last word on environmental
document with its hardbound version printed on
stewardship than is Al Gore or a former rock star,
post-consumer recycled paper — from the Center for
Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett, who now serves as
Digital Government.
environment minister in Australia.4 But all have wid-
The naming of Simply Green was a deliberate choice. ened the conversation by popularizing the issues for a
Simplicity confronts complexity, and there is more than broader audience.
enough of that to go around when thinking about the
Government leaders have been listening. Thirty-five
public policy implications of sustainability, global
states have adopted a climate action plan and more than
climate change, governments’ carbon footprint — the
600 mayors are signatories to the U.S. Conference of
impact on the environment measured in units of carbon
Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. The National
dioxide — and the so-called “greening” of IT.2
Governors Association also recently signed on to sup-
Consider that, with Al Gore’s climate change trifecta port the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
of a Nobel Peace Prize, an Academy Award for “An
With popularization has come politicization and polar-
ization, the latter bookended by casting sustainability as
The Time Has Come, 20 Years Later a “moral imperative” on one hand and opportunistically
trivializing it through lip service or “green washing”5 on
The time has come the other.
To say fair’s fair Indeed, inconvenient truths have become very conve-
To pay the rent nient differentiators in the marketing of information
To pay our share technology under the rubric of the greening of IT —
The time has come just scroll through your inbox or walk a trade show floor
A fact’s a fact to see the selective claims made on behalf of any number
It belongs to us all of goods and services that are being recast as environ-
Let’s give it back mentally responsible.
How can we dance when our earth is turning? The intent of Simply Green is to pursue a pragmatic path
through this popularized, politicized and polarized envi-
How do we sleep when our beds are burning?
ronment that focuses on four primary areas that have a
- Midnight Oil, “Beds are Burning,” 1987 direct bearing on the public sector information technol-
ogy community. The discussion that follows highlights
four steps in the right direction.
4 Simply Green

5. Step 1: Rules and Regulations: the environmental and their own performance and goals in the context of other
conservation requirements that government sectors. Governments can still choose to do more, but
imposes on itself and others; would be hard-pressed to justify doing less.
Step 2: Operational Optimization: running the IT At the same time, Simply Green provides an oppor-
that supports the mission-critical work of tunity to take stock of other initiatives that have a
government cleaner, cooler and cheaper; bearing on government’s carbon footprint, including
online services — the widespread adoption of which
Step 3: Acquisition and Disposal: standing on the
has replaced paper-intensive processes and reduced the
shoulders of the federal Energy Star program,
amount of travel needed to do business with govern-
making smarter buying choices and paying
ment. It also discusses the intersection of sustainability
attention to what to do with electronic waste
with teleconferencing technologies and telework, both
(e-waste); and,
of which reduce commutes by allowing work to be
Step 4: Home: the place where public employees must done from a distance.
inevitably work near or at if there are to be
A final note: There is an old advertising campaign
meaningful reductions in government’s car-
from a national chain of oil change shops that ended
bon footprint.
with the tag line, “We don’t want to change the world;
By definition, there are many important if controversial we just want to change your oil.” Such a campaign
issues that are well beyond the scope of this paper and seems ironic in the current environment and would
the authority of the Center — including but not lim- likely be rethought given today’s sensibilities around
ited to greenhouse gas emission reductions, anti-sprawl sustainability. But the line of demarcation is a useful
land-use policies, green building codes, energy-efficient one here. This paper makes no claims about contribut-
building retrofits and emission trading systems. ing to the lofty goals of changing or saving the world,
Those larger initiatives are properly the purview of but it does have something to say about helping the
more widely chartered organizations — ranging from public sector IT community get its domain in order,
the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Pew Center on come what may.
Global Climate Change to Green Technology, a non-
profit initiative to inform government efforts toward
sustainability, and a myriad of grassroots organizations. Big Picture Sustainability
For its part, the Center for Digital Government is sim- Organizations
ply focusing on its original wheelhouse — government Clinton Climate Initiative
modernization — and the synergies between a more pro- www.clintonfoundation.org
nounced hue of green and the practical considerations in Pew Center on Global Climate Change
meeting the policy, management and operational needs www.pewclimate.org
of doing the public’s business.
There are a pair of technology industry initiatives that
can provide useful assistance on the road to simplicity:
Climate Savers which builds on the pioneering work And Those Focused on the
of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Greening of IT
Star program for increasing PC and server power
Green Technology
performance; and, The Green Grid which integrates www.green-technology.org
sustainability into the operating disciplines of raised
floor data centers. US Government’s Energy Star Program
www.Energy Star.gov
While operational efficiency is only one of the four ar- Climate Savers Smart Computing Initiative
eas examined in Simply Green, it readily points to the www.climatesaverscomputing.org
importance of simplicity. In terms of non-duplication The Green GridSM
of resources, these industry initiatives provide a starting www.thegreengrid.org
point for large-scale purchasers and users of information UN Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP)
technology in assessing their energy use, and planning www.step-iniative.org
for its reduction during subsequent investment cycles. Carbon Disclosure Project
Simply put, the industry benchmarks, targets and re- http://www.cdproject.net
lated metrics make it simpler for governments to assess
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 5

6. Introduction:
Occam’s Razor
“All other things being equal, the simplest solution is Simple.gov suggested that disciplined change was the
the best.” That is a contemporary paraphrase of Occam’s only way to prevent complexity from spiraling into cha-
razor, a principle attributed to the 14th-century Eng- os. It also recognized that modernization efforts were at
lish logician William of Ockham. Occam’s razor advises an important junction. Enough work had been done to
“economy, parsimony, or simplicity” in our approach to transition public administration to the point that ana-
all things.6 It goes to the heart of being simple, but it is log governments were running on digital platforms. The
not easy. It assumes a disciplined approach to eliminat- challenge and opportunity that simplicity requires is to
ing things that do not matter in finding the simplest complete the transition or, more properly, transforma-
solution. Mathematicians prefer “irreducibly complex” tion to digital government.
in describing simplicity. Either way, these formulations
It follows then that the Center would be interested in
point us in the right direction where environmental
something that is simply green, in which the general
stewardship is concerned, as well as in the continuing
principles of simple are applied to the specific area of the
campaign for government modernization.
greening of IT.
Simply Green is the sustainability sequel to Simple.gov:
Indeed, there are synergies to be realized by extending
It’s Time to Change the Story, an earlier white paper from
the same stewardship disciplines that guide the road to
the Center for Digital Government that explored the
simple to operational policies and issues that have been
prospect of applying Occam’s Razor to the way govern-
bundled up and popularized under the rubric of green
ment works in a digital, networked world.
or sustainability.
A sequel is different than an afterthought. It builds on
an existing back story. It relies on and requires work
that has already been done. To paraphrase the late Peter
Drucker, there is nothing as useless as sustaining some-
thing that is not sustainable.
Simply Green continues
the Simple.gov story
Changing the story to focus on
products and processes that are:
4Simplified
4Simple to use
4Sophisticated, elegant and
straight forward
While recognizing that getting to “irreducibly complex”
may be simple, but it is not easy.
The Center for Digital Government white paper
Simple.gov — It’s Time to Change the Story is available
as a digital download under the publications tab at
www.centerdigitalgov.com.
6 Simply Green

7. The Dance of Simplicity and Sustainability Step 3: ACQUISITION and DISPOSAL of Tech-
nology: A validation of the largely voluntary
To those ends, Simply Green offers a few steps in the
e-waste recycling effort to keep old technology
right direction toward integrating sustainability into
out of landfills, and an embrace of industry-
public sector IT. The four steps, as depicted in Figure
led initiatives such as the new Climate Savers
1 below, sketch out the opening moves in the dance of
Computing Initiative to reduce carbon dioxide
simplicity and sustainability:
emissions from commodity computing.
Step 1: RULES and REGULATIONS: A clear-eyed
Step 4: HOME as the New Workplace: With much
assessment of the completeness and consistency
of government’s carbon footprint consumed
of the policy environment in spelling out the
in the commute, the greening of IT may fi-
expectations that government has of itself and
nally provide an impetus for telework that is
others in environmental stewardship.
equal to the resistance it has long faced by
Step 2: OPERATIONAL OPTIMIZATION: With entrenched bureaucracies and work rules.7
a major IT advisory house predicting energy
Each step will be discussed in turn. The first step neces-
costs could soon consume up to half of an
sarily requires taking stock of the dance floor.
organization’s IT budget, running cleaner,
cooler and cheaper from the data center to
the farthest reaches of the organization may
make green the last best chance to stay out of
the red.
2
Operational Optimization
3
Acquisition & Disposal
1
Rules & Regulations
4
Commute & Telework
Figure 1: The Dance of Simplicity and Sustainability: A Few Steps in the Right Direction
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 7

8. Step 1: Rules and Regulations:
A clear-eyed assessment of the completeness and consistency
of the policy environment in spelling out the expectations that
government has of itself and others in environmental stewardship.
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change keeps a run- due to initiatives all around the globe as we recognize
ning tally of climate change legislation from states across the connectivity of everything in the ecosystem, whether
the country.8 Prior to the 2008 legislative sessions, the that’s an IT system or the physical ecosystem so you real-
legislative action fell into three dominant categories: (1) ize the products that you use come back into that system
the creation of climate change plans and commissions; [need to do so] in an eco-friendly way.”13
(2) greenhouse gas reporting, registries and inventories;
Saving the environment is a big job, and it lends itself to
and (3) renewable energy and electric power performance
a myriad of possible metrics and measures to reflect the
standards. The mix will inevitably change when chambers
complexity of the underlying science. Resisting the twin
are gaveled to order with the start of subsequent legislative
temptations to do too little or too much makes it all the
sessions. For example, more than 26 states will consider
more important to take a programmatic approach while
e-waste legislation similar to that already adopted in
avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort.
Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine,
Virginia and Washington.9 For its part, one research and advisory company is more
pointed in its assessment, cautioning that, “Regulations
Public executives have been more likely than legislative
are multiplying and have the potential to seriously con-
bodies to set expectations directly related to information
strain companies in building data centers, as the impact
technology. Through executive orders and directives, a
on power grids, carbon emissions from increased use
growing number of governors have directed agencies to
and other environmental impacts are under scrutiny.”14
reduce energy consumption across the board, includ-
ing the power demands of information technology. As is often the case, advocates of point solutions —
Likewise, more than 600 mayors have signed the U.S. solving one problem without regard to related issues
Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement,10 — often lack the ability or interest in helping us see
which includes commitments to commute reduction the wider programmatic view. At the same time, there
programs, purchasing only Energy Star-certified equip- are competing interests that would create entirely new
ment and sustainable building practices such as the bureaucracies to monitor and assess just how green
U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy green is, or is becoming. Both alternatives add complexity
and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building when what is needed is simplicity.
Rating program.11 The simplest solution for taking a programmatic view of
Elected officials and other public officials are in an green IT in the public sector is to adapt existing efforts
unenviable position because there is no one answer to to account for this new priority. As detailed in Table 1,
what the public expects from leaders, their neighbors 39 states have developed accountability or performance
and themselves. The public opinion research firm Ipsos programs and 35 states have adopted a climate action
MORI observes that, “While people voice concern plan. Among the 49 states that have one or the other,
about climate change but do little to change their 25 have both.
behavior, they also bow to financial pressures whilst
claiming to shrug them off.”12
For now the lack of firm consensus may provide some
breathing room for the public sector IT community as
it figures out how to best address climate change.
According to Phil Bond, president and CEO of
the Information Technology Association of America
(ITAA), “I think it’s going to become a day-to-day con-
sideration for most folks in government. I don’t think it
is right now. I think it already is on the commercial side
8 Simply Green

9. Table 1:
States with a Climate Action Plan and/or a Performance and Accountability Program
Climate Action Accountability/Performance
Plans Programs
Alaska •
Alabama • •
Arkansas •
Arizona • •
California • •
Colorado • •
Connecticut • •
Delaware •
Florida • •
Georgia •
Hawaii • •
Idaho • •
Iowa • •
Illinois • •
Indiana •
Kansas •
Kentucky •
Louisiana •
Massachusetts •
Maryland • •
Maine • •
Michigan •
Minnesota • •
Mississippi •
Missouri • •
Montana • •
Nebraska •
New Mexico •
North Carolina •
New Hampshire •
New Mexico • •
New Jersey •
New York • •
Nevada • •
North Carolina •
North Dakota •
Ohio •
Oregon • •
Pennsylvania • •
Rhode Island • •
South Carolina • •
Texas •
Tennessee • •
Utah • •
Virginia • •
Vermont •
Washington • •
West Virginia
Wisconsin •
Wyoming •
Sources: Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Urban Institute, Government Accountability Office,
National Council of State Legislators, Center for Digital Government
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 9

10. The 39 accountability and performance states would Sustainability Officer.” The proponents of such a devel-
do well to integrate a green component into existing ac- opment envision a “Chief Green Officer” as being on
countability programs rather than to create a new and point for a broad agenda to “reduce the environmental
likely duplicative oversight bureaucracy. The 25 states footprint, engage with a diverse group of stakeholders,
that have both have twice the incentive to integrate sus- and discover new revenue opportunities.”15
tainability and accountability.
On the downside, Green Czars represent the thin edge
To be clear, this is not to argue that political subdi- of the wedge in creating a new bureaucracy, the carbon
visions should not create climate advisory boards and footprint of which would have to be mitigated. There are
agencies, or positions for environmental stewards or other organizational constraints. The sustainability point
chief sustainability officers, to the degree that they fit person will be less likely than her C-level executive
the administration’s priorities. The point here is that colleagues to be able to see into particular operating
any such move should be, at a minimum, carbon neu- environments and understand the opportunities and
tral. Green governance should not increase head count pitfalls in harvesting environmental gains. Moreover, a
or square footage and their attendant resource con- chief green officer is primarily a policy and policing role,
sumption. It represents an ideal opportunity to create which makes it difficult to be genuinely collegial in the
virtual teams that use networked collaborative tools executive suite.
without expanding the government’s footprint. It also
“I do not believe it is necessary to establish a Chief
represents a stewardship opportunity to sunset existing
Green Officer position,” suggests Dr. Mike Mittleman,
functions and agencies that have outlived the original
New York state deputy CIO. “Sustainability is a con-
purpose and re-purpose those resources in favor of this
cern and responsibility of all organizational members.
new priority.
As such, it should be given prominence in strategic
Put another way, public agencies can do better by the plans and policies. Various performance metrics can be
environment with only incremental effort by extend- established that will readily provide current state and
ing existing programs — not building new ones. Not trend information to management and staff. Measures
to integrate or streamline such programs would have the should be global within an organization since all areas
ironic side effect of growing the bureaucracy, increasing consume power and all parts can take steps to reduce
the need for energy-consuming office space and expand- consumption. The other reality is most power meter-
ing governments’ carbon footprint. The irony would not ing and billing systems are not sufficiently granular to
be lost on the activist community or headline writers. isolate power consumption by floor or office.”16
Green is good, but its purposes will not be well served California CIO Teri Takai, who previously served in the
if it becomes the basis of all new programs administered same role in Michigan and is a past president of the
by all new bureaucracies that exist somehow separately National Association of State Chief Information Offi-
from the real work of government. Surely, something cers (NASCIO), agrees. “I think a Green C [Chief Green
green can grow on and through the 39 existing statewide Officer] is overkill. Once the governor sets a policy, it is
performance and accountability programs that have up to the cabinet agencies to determine what their role
been put in place over the last 15 years. For the pub- is in energy efficiency,” says Takai. “I am [also] not sure
lic sector IT community, integrating green into existing that the CIO should be the focal point for all of the
policies, plans and processes is another opportunity state’s greening efforts. I believe that the CIO should
to avoid building tomorrow’s organizational stove- take a leadership role in ensuring that [everything IT is]
pipes today. ‘green.’”17
The Commonwealth of Virginia has found a different
balance point. “We appointed a senior advisor to the
Public CIOs, Green Czars and their Spans
governor as our ‘energy czar,’” remembers Secretary of
of Control
Technology Aneesh Chopra. He says CIOs should not
Chief information officers came into their own as be confused with being Green Czars because “the skills
organizations recognized the strategic importance are totally different,” but “the CIO is an important
of information technology. As organizations come to stakeholder for states that plan to lead by example in
terms with the strategic importance of sustainability, it lowering our energy footprint.”18
leaves open the possibility of the ascendancy of a “Chief
10 Simply Green

11. Sustainability brings with it technologies of its own, puters, network infrastructure and software, but that
particularly where green or energy-efficient buildings are does not necessarily translate to the CIO being qualified
concerned. Like physical controls in manufacturing and to manage the carpool.”
other mechanical processes, green technologies rely on
digital technologies to control the controls — includ-
ing a growing range of products alternatively known as Moral Imperatives and Digital Technologies in
operational technology (OT) or embedded IT. Digital the Public Square
physical controls have been outside the purview of CIOs We should have seen this coming. We could have. And
in manufacturing, warehousing and the operation of some did, three decades ago. From 1972 to 1995, Con-
bridges. The public CIOs interviewed for Simply Green gress was served by an Office of Technology Assessment
agreed that the CIO’s span of control was unlikely to that it charged with deep, comprehensive and technical
change as green control and other technologies become analysis across five areas of research. The OTA delivered,
mainstream — nor should it. in a myriad of reports over the years, a collective 100,000
Mittleman and Chopra pointed to appropriateness of pages of non-partisan, expert advice that won the agen-
fit between business needs and skill sets. According to cy bipartisan praise and a reputation as Capitol Hill’s
Mittleman, “The CIO does not generally have special “best and smallest agency.” Regrettably, none of that was
knowledge, training or skills that automatically proffer enough to spare the OTA from closure amid the govern-
credentials for managing outside of the usual sphere of ment downsizing that came in the mid-1990s.20
influence — that is, information technology.” For her Given the challenges of global climate change, globaliza-
part, Takai says the integration of digital, network tech- tion and the social impacts of network technologies that
nologies into control technologies notwithstanding, characterize our times, it is difficult not to wax nostalgic
state and local governments “all have an active facilities about an organization that was chartered to consider “the
management organization who are responsible for over- effects of technological change on jobs and training, and
all power consumption.” Her only caveat is that all such analyzed the changing role of electronic technologies in
devices need to be well behaved as they connect to the the nation’s industrial, commercial, and governmental
state network. “My view is that the role of the CIO is to institutions and the influence of related regulations and
ensure that any devices that utilize state networks should policies” under one program and examine “the role of
be vetted by the CISO [chief information security of- technology in extracting, producing, and using energy
ficer],” she says, but “the selection and control should be resources; in designing, operating, and improving trans-
the responsibility of [the] facilities [department].” portation systems; and in planning, constructing, and
Richard H. J. Varn, CIO for the city of San Antonio, maintaining infrastructure … and recycling or waste
Texas and long-serving senior fellow with the Center management” under another.21
for Digital Government, says, “We are responsible for In the absence of the OTA or a successor agency, these
the flows of actionable data on which people or sys- issues have fallen to freelancers — grassroots organiza-
tems depend. That’s where we have a role.” Noting that tions, authors and activists — whose advocacy lacks the
public sector IT [departments are] “already so big and comprehensive view of technology assessment. The
inappropriately staffed,” Varn insists that CIOs should National Association of State Chief Information Officers
not buy trouble: “Sustainability is at the logical nexus (NASCIO) stepped into the breach with the creation
of physics, fluid and thermal dynamics and mechanical of its Greening of IT Working Group to “explore the
engineering, not IT. But when the information systems role that CIOs can play in their states to preserve
on which that nexus relies need support, we’re there.” the environment while providing the technology that
With a wink and a nod to the marketing campaign of enables state government operations.” In a preliminary
a major manufacturing concern, Varn concludes, “We description of the group, NASCIO anticipated devel-
don’t make green technologies; we may make them oping a “call to action to raise awareness of the CIO’s
more useful.”19 role in green IT” and aggregating “policies, business and
“All things technical are not IT,” agrees Mittleman, procurement strategies, and emerging best practices for
because chasing everything digital could take CIOs to state CIOs to green state IT.”22
places they do not want to go. “Automobiles represent
compendiums of several technologies, including com-
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 11

12. Even an organization known for its measured approach
flirted with the idea that the working group could help
change the world: “As environmental concerns rise to the
top of the agenda for lawmakers and citizens alike, the
IT community must also reevaluate its energy consump-
tion and use of resources. As ‘green’ becomes the moral
imperative of the 21st century, the role of the state CIO
will become increasingly relevant.”23 Such aspirations
were tempered by NASCIO Executive Director Doug
Robinson who explained that green did not make the
member CIOs’ top 20 of strategic initiatives for 2008,
“When you’re competing with front-page issues like IT
security, consolidation, disaster recovery, ERP imple-
mentation, ERP strategies, health information technol-
ogy — that’s the challenge. It’s not as strategic as some
of those; it’s much more tactical.”24
Contrast that with the number one spot given to green
IT by one research and advisory company’s analysts in
their rundown of strategic technologies for 2008.25 The
difference in ranking may be best explained by how
green is seen and understood. When green is elevated to
a moral imperative, sales-related organizations see it as
an opportunity to create, make or expand a market. In
the public sector, a moral imperative can fairly be seen as
a euphemism for an unfunded mandate (and few things
are less welcome in the competition for scarce public re-
sources). Given the still-unknown scope and economic
impact of sustainability, it casts a dark green shadow over
public organizations and their budgets as the mother of
unfunded mandates.
12 Simply Green

13. Step 2: Operational Optimization:
With a major IT advisory house predicting energy costs could soon
consume up to half of an organization’s IT budget,26 running cleaner,
cooler and cheaper from the data center to the farthest reaches of the
organization may make green the last best chance to stay out of the red.
“Data centers are the energy hogs of the 21st century,” “‘an absolute juggernaut’ in energy consumption. He ar-
cautions Aneesh Chopra, Virginia’s Secretary of Tech- gued that industry and the government shared a ‘moral
nology, “And if we all believe we need to have renew- obligation’ to ensure the country’s energy security.”30
able energy and energy independence in this country,
Even as energy consumption and related costs rise, so
those of us in the IT community must step up and ac-
to does the workload on the raised floor. In 2006, data
knowledge that we are net consumers in a significant
centers around the world managed 161 exabytes, or 161
way.”27 Indeed, the hogs have a huge appetite. The U.S.
billion gigabytes. The information created, captured and
Environmental Protection Agency put numbers to data
replicated is on track to grow six-fold by 2010 from 161
center power consumption in a report to Congress. By
exabytes to 988 exabytes.31 (See Big Number sidebar for
its math, data centers used 61 billion kilowatt-hours in
context.) But there is no apparent correlation between
2006 — that’s 1.5 percent of all power consumed in the
workload and energy consumption. “In a typical data-
United States — at a cost of $4.5 billion. The EPA of-
center,” suggests Amory Lovins, the chief scientist of the
fered no estimate as to how much of that is attributable
sustainability-focused Rocky Mountain Institute, “the
to state and local government, but estimated federal data
electricity usage hardly varies at all, but the IT load var-
centers were on the hook for 10 percent of that total.28
ies by a factor of three or more. That tells you that we’re
To the degree there is an imperative, it is over energy waste. not properly implementing power management.”32 The
“The information technology function is responsible for Robert Frances Group estimates that power and cool-
a major portion of an organization’s power consumption; ing costs for data centers consume up to 40 percent of
often needlessly so,” laments Mike Mittleman. For the the operating costs of the buildings in which they are
Empire State’s deputy CIO, the remedy begins with a housed.33 Moreover, Gartner estimates that 60 percent
“focus on improving power efficiency for those business of a data center’s energy consumption is wasted.34 (See
aspects unquestionably under CIO control [which] should sidebar for energy best practices for data centers.)
have a salubrious impact on the organization’s carbon
footprint.” For Mittleman, it is a matter of proper public
stewardship. “Given the spiraling cost of power,” he says,
“the CIO is obligated to implement strategies that will A Big Number: 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
reduce consumption; responsible organization citizenship EXABYTE: (1) 2 to the 60th power (1,152,921,504,606,846,976)
demands nothing less.” bytes. An exabyte is equal to 1,024 petabytes.
California CIO Teri Takai is less sanguine about the pros- PETABYTE: 2 to the 50th power (1,125,899,906,842,624) bytes.
pects: “We are the main power consumers in the state and A petabyte is equal to 1,024 terabytes.
our costs are rising. Replacing our old equipment with TERABYTE: (1) 2 to the 40th power (1,099,511,627,776) bytes.
energy efficient equipment sounds great but is very hard This is approximately 1 trillion bytes. (2) 10 to the 12th power
to justify. Replacing old facilities is even harder. And while (1,000,000,000,000). This is exactly 1 trillion.
virtualization sounds great, we are still fighting to consoli- Source: webopedia.internet.com
date physical data centers. How are we going to consoli-
date across servers that we can’t get into the same room? I
am a great believer that the CIO needs to get the IT shop A (Seemingly) Small Number: 2%
in order before they branch out to take over the world.”29
These are very real challenges, but ones that government The operation of information and communications technolo-
agencies can overcome. There is tremendous opportunity gies accounts for roughly 2 percent of global carbon dioxide
for energy reduction and increased performance. (CO2) emissions, including PCs, servers, cooling, fixed and
mobile telephony, LAN, WAN, printers, UPS, and storage.
In a meeting with technology firms in Silicon Valley,
Source: Gartner, 2007
Andrew Karsner, an assistant secretary in the U.S. De-
partment of Energy, characterized computer systems as
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 13

14. The figure excludes the energy used in the manufacturing on a mainframe but as low as 5 to 15 percent on
and distribution process, the attendant extraction of raw servers. At the processer level, activate “throttle down
resources for their manufacture, and in their disposal. features [to] reduce energy consumption” and consider
migration to “multicore processors that squeeze out
better performance at lower clock speeds.”37
Always On vs. Turn It Off: Considerations
for Compromise 4. Be careful to compare blade servers and rack servers
on the basis of computing capacity and power and
The chief performance attributes of data centers —
cooling requirements, not on space. The calcula-
availability, reliability and sheer horsepower (perfor-
tions, not to mention operational considerations,
mance) — are at odds with the conservation-based
here are complex and deserve disciplined analysis.
assumptions of sustainability. Through experimen-
For example, blade and virtualization technologies
tation with available tools, and the promise of new
result in denser data centers that require more power
functionality in subsequent “greener” releases, data
and more cooling but server consolidation through
center operators and their providers (plus analysts
virtualization can result in significant energy savings.
and other observers) are working on a number of
emerging practices that may result in an honorable 5. Measure and monitor the energy consumption of
compromise between performance and sustainability. servers at least once per year.38 Choose more efficient
In broad strokes, the emerging set of greener practices power supplies for servers and recognize that redun-
suggests organizations build on long established data dancy and load sharing strategies raise both uptime
center disciplines. Here, in summary form, are 9 steps rates and energy use. Many rack servers ship with
with which to start: supplies that are 60 percent to 70 percent efficient
— but the Energy Star 80 Plus requirement, which
1. Take a broad, holistic view of the organization and its
requires power supplies in computers and servers to be
operations in assessing energy use, factoring energy and
80 percent or greater energy efficient, can save an esti-
cooling cost reduction into lifecycle management;35
mated 301 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per server per year.
2. Consider power efficiency as a key placement attri-
6. Use the operating system to ration the voltage going to
bute in scheduling server workloads.36
the processor, particularly as new power management
3. Balance energy consumption and utilization in pick- features in new operating system releases provide more
ing platforms. CPU utilization averages 90 percent finely grained controls.39
7. Take advantage of metrics and models developed
The Green Grid Technology Roadmap by industry initiatives such as The Green Grid (see
sidebar) to improve the energy efficiency of existing
Data Center Standards and Metrics Inventory: Identifies data centers and plan more effectively for new facili-
coverage gaps in existing energy efficiency standards and ties, with a view to better management of “increased
recommends future developments computing, network, and storage demands, low
Data Center Power Efficiency Model: Builds on metrics to energy costs, and reduce total cost of ownership
model workload classification and data center segmentation (TCO) — all while remaining … able to meet
Energy Efficiency Operationalization: Maps requirements future business needs.”40
for collecting power consumption data
8. Adapt performance dashboards to reflect sustainabil-
Efficiency Baseline: Assesses organizational motivation for ity measures — including metrics that encompass
greening data centers metrics such as “energy and materials efficiency,
Data Center Operational and Performance Best Practices: carbon dioxide footprint, wastes, supplier manage-
Right-sizing data centers through virtualization and ment, staff development and projects.”41
consolidation, based on data center characteristics and
performance schema. 9. And the classically simple (but often overlooked)
Power Distribution Options: Describes qualitative answer: When not in use, turn it off. (See Step 4 for
advantages and disadvantages of data center power a more nuanced discussion of making use of power
distribution configurations. management functions, particularly those that ship
Cooling Options Study: Mirrors the power distribution study with end-user systems.)
but focuses on data center cooling architectures.
14 Simply Green

15. Clearly, data center optimization is a much larger planners make smarter decisions when and if they are
undertaking than can be captured in even the most able to re-think data centers and build one from scratch.
refined bulleted list.
Enter The Green Grid, a not-for-profit industry con- A Green House for a Green Data Center
sortium focused on “advancing energy efficiency in
Virginia Secretary Chopra looks to the private sector for
data centers and computing ecosystems,” which has
the needed innovation to fundamentally reform data
completed the key elements of its technology road-
centers, “We need to encourage our vendor community
map, the first priority of which is developing metrics
to build green-friendly data centers and server farms so
for benchmarking, measuring and optimizing data
we can be proper stewards of our resources.”
center power consumption.42
One example of such industry-led innovation is found
The consortium was welcomed as a common aggregation
at the intersection of modularization and sustainability.
point as the industry and data center operators struggled
In late 2007, one computer manufacturer unveiled a full
to come to terms with green. Even at that, some analysts
data center in a box — and delivered it on a truck. The
worried that the consortium’s industry ties might hold it
big digital prefab is “a pre-configured, fully contained data
back from the kind of innovation needed to re-imagine
center in a shipping container.” The manufacturer says
the data center as part of a sustainable ecosystem.
the data center module “is optimized for maximum den-
It is worth noting that The Green Grid aspires not only sity, performance and energy efficiency.” What’s more, it
to help tune up existing data centers but also to help was built with “recyclable parts and components.”43
Energy Best Practices in Data Centers
A Contrarian Consensus Consolidation and virtualization matters because low server
As a matter of first principles, the greenest data center is the one utilization rates waste energy and virtualization increases
that you don’t build; the greenest server or storage device is the utilization. Finally, modular design lets systems run at load
one that you don’t buy; and the greenest watt of electricity is the — where energy performance is at its peak — or, alternatively,
one that you don’t use. turn off when not at capacity.
Planning the Work, Working the Plan Cool Running, not Cold
Fewer than half of organizations monitor the energy Data centers should not be mitten or sweater cold, yet data
consumption of their data centers.44 Co-location of data centers center employees often sport the layered look to be comfortable
in dual-use buildings often makes it difficult to meter IT energy at work. There is sometimes historic or cultural resistance to the
consumption separately. As a first step, uninterrupted power idea of raising temperatures in the data center out of concern
supply (UPS) systems can act as a surrogate in monitoring for the operating temperatures of mission-critical machines.
power consumption by mission critical gear. What is a data Yet the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-
center operator to do? Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) may expand its recommended
specifications for server temperature by as much as 80 percent
Draw on best practices and humidity ranges by 60 percent,47 suggesting there appears
• Assess and plan. to be operating tolerances to be exploited.
• Consolidate and ladder refreshes with energy efficient
replacement servers. To those ends:
• Aggregate high-demand systems and use rack- or row-based
Get Dense cooling systems to do what room-based air conditioning cannot.
• If you must own, share. • Make sure HVAC systems are working for you, not against you.
• If you must operate your own, consolidate, modularize, Luke warm is no solution. Separate hot aisle from cold aisle.
virtualize and rethink floor space. • Run chillers at off-peak hours and use stored energy during
• If you go after your servers, go after storage too. peak loads.
• The installation of blanking panels — pieces of metal
Data centers were the original shared service where multiple that prevent air re-circulation — can reduce energy loss
public entities could avoid duplicate investments in raised floor through unused vertical space in open-frame racks and rack
space, uninterrupted power supply (UPS) and environmentals. enclosures, which creates unrestricted hot air recycling and
Looking ahead, systems will consume available power supply causes equipment to heat up unnecessarily.
much faster than floor space, and the cost of power is more • As Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory suggests, data
volatile than real estate. centers can tap cooler seasonal weather to economize
by using air-side economizers, which typically sense and
In one manufacturer’s assessment of what it characterizes as filter outside air and allow it to enter the data center when
a typical data center, 15 percent was consumed by storage,45 conditions, such as temperature and humidity, are within
26 percent by computing servers and fully 59 percent was acceptable engineering parameters.48
consumed by cooling.46
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 15

16. The modular approach, particularly if available as a and downtown Olympia — is slated for demolition to
leased product or, better yet under a Software-as-a- make way for a politically-prized Heritage Center, de-
Service (SaaS) offering, fits with the dual but conflicting scribed as “the most important construction project in
demands for greater capacity amid oversubscribed Olympia since the Capitol was finished in 1928.”49 The
budgets. Such a new modular infrastructure, with or operational need to replace the existing 32-year-old DIS
without a new business model, comes with added sus- data center certainly factored into the decision but it
tainability benefits too. benefited from being seen in the context of the larger
capitol campus transformation.
Conventional public sector data centers tend to be on
elongated amortization schedules and new or replace- Sustainability and efficiency were integrated into the
ment facilities have very long gestation periods. “It’s a bid for the new DIS complex, as they have been since
capital construction project,” reminds NASCIO Execu- 2005 under an executive order issued by the previous
tive Director Doug Robinson, “and it can take many administration. The order requires, in part, that major
years to get it approved.” construction projects “be built and certified to the U.S.
Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and
Timing may not be everything in a political environ-
Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Standard…”50
ment, but it is an important thing. Washington state’s
timing could not have been better. With careful plan- DIS Director Gary Robinson says the return on invest-
ning and sophisticated stewarding through the state ment considerations related to silver certification “were
planning and budgeting processes, the Washington State addressed at the pre-design stage.”51 The project has
Department of Information Services (DIS) is expected transitioned successfully to the design stage, with the
to break ground on an all new and very green data center Seattle-based firm Wright Runstad & Company under
in spring 2008. contract to develop and build the complex.
The new DIS 166,000-square-foot data center is the In some pubic installations, LEED Silver compliance
defining feature of a 456,000-square-foot, $260 mil- has led to operational savings of up to 35 percent.52
lion office complex, scheduled to be built on one of the
Gartner suggests that such savings do not come for free,
last available spaces on Olympia’s capitol campus. That
estimating that “going green may add 10 percent to 15
land scarcity was important to the project’s approval.
percent [to] capital equipment and operational costs.”
The timely completion of the DIS complex in 2010 will
provide new offices for the host agency as well as the Still, the analyst house estimates that, by 2011, a quarter
Washington State Patrol, Department of General Ad- of new data centers will be strikingly different than those
ministration (GA) and other smaller agencies. The State operating today, with “mechanical, electrical, thermal
Patrol, GA and the others need a new home because and hosted computer systems have all been designed for
their existing one — a non-descript, 1950s-era cinder maximum energy efficiency.”53
brick building with spectacular views of Capitol Lake The new Washington state facility may be prototypical
of the new green breed of data centers. It is scheduled to
come online in 2010. The transformation will be tele-
The LEED Silver Standard vised — DIS plans to maintain a live Web stream from
the construction site.
Certification at the silver level of compliance or achievement
requires a building project to earn 33 to 38 points of a possible
69 across six areas of examination:
• Site Sustainability
• Water Efficiency
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Materials and Resources
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Innovation and Design Process
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Green Building Rating System encourages and accelerates global
adoption of sustainable green building and development prac-
tices through the creation and implementation of universally
understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.
Source: www.usgbc.org
16 Simply Green

17. Step 3: Acquisition and Disposal of Technology:
A validation of the largely volunteer effort to keep old technology
out of landfills, and an embrace of industry-led initiatives such
as the new Climate Savers Computing Initiative to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions from commodity computing.
The country’s largest states have among the most ambitious the manufacturing and distribution process, the atten-
sustainability programs. California Gov. Arnold Schwar- dant extraction of raw resources for their manufacture,
zenegger laid out a broad agenda in an executive order on and in their disposal. And their responses have coalesced
sustainability, which included LEED Silver certification for around a commitment to environmental sustainability.
new buildings, Energy Star certification for new technolo- Typical of the industry are policy and operational objec-
gy and an overall mandate to make California government tives to “design products with a focus on: safe operation
buildings 20 percent more efficient by 2015.54 At the op- throughout the entire product life cycle, extending
posite corner of the country, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer product life span, reducing energy consumption, avoiding
introduced his “15 by 15” plan to reduce state electricity environmentally sensitive materials, promoting dema-
consumption 15 percent by 2015.55 terialization, and using parts that are capable of being
recycled at the highest level.”58
Information technology can both help and hinder such
efforts. New York state Deputy CIO Mike Mittleman Beyond company by company initiatives, the industry
began what he called “after-hours thinking on one small banded together with conservation groups in support
aspect of the relationship between information technol- of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. At its core,
ogy, equipment selection and the environment.” The the initiative is about cutting the energy consumption
result was an intellectually and statistically rigorous
examination of the difference configurations can make Simple Steps for Immediate Impact
when compared on key characteristics:
4 A Green Ratio focuses on energy efficiency;
in the Office
4 A Cost Ratio places a premium on procurement Turn Workflow on its Head
expense; and The Old Model – Print and distribute.
4 A Green Value Ratio considers processing power, The New Model – Distribute and print.
energy efficiency and cost. The new model securely captures documents at the point of origin
and manages the digital document through an automated workflow
Of the three, Mittleman concludes that the Green Value to the end user, while giving readers the discretion of whether and
Ratio is the most helpful in materially helping in making when to press “print.”
management decisions, while realizing other benefits
Minimize power needs by going Multi
along the way. “Factoring energy efficiency into enterprise Multi-function printers or all-in-one machines (combining print, copy,
information technology purchasing decisions is more scan and fax functions) use up to 40 percent less energy to operate
than simply a way of demonstrating environmental sen- because multiple machines are replaced by a single device, itself
sitivity; it is consistent with the concerns and actions of Energy Star rated.
the industry, in short, a best practice,” wrote Mittleman,
Default to Duplex
“From another perspective, energy management offers Default settings for two-sided printing and copying saves paper and
an increasingly important cost-saving opportunity.”56 complements paper recycling programs. Centralized and remote
administration of an organization’s entire fleet of printers and copiers
The promise of an emerging or best practice in the pro- offers both productivity and sustainability gains. Changes should
curement of commodity IT has focused the attention begin by presetting all devices to the energy-saving “sleep” mode.
of the industry on helping potential purchasers make
better decisions. One manufacturer offers an approach Alert but not Awake
called SWaP — Space, Watts and Performance. The One manufacturer offers a proprietary “Instant-on” function that
rouses sleeping machines quickly without impairing productivity. 59
metric considers three dimensions of space, power
consumption and server performance.57 Diet Stuffing
At the design, manufacturing and distribution levels, Incorporate requirements for eliminating excess packaging for
equipment and consumables in purchasing and procurement practices.
computer manufacturers face common challenges re- Look to third-party assessments of sustainability performance, such as
lated to embodied energy — that is, the energy used in those at the Carbon Disclosure Project.60
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 17

18. of commodity technologies in half by 2010. The startling facturers will also act as brokers in reselling used equipment
starting point is that an average desktop PC wastes nearly that still has commercial value and returning the proceeds
half the power delivered to it. If successful in halving the to the original owner. All of these reuse and recycling
half, PCs will only be wasting a quarter of their energy approaches are predicated on careful attention to the docu-
supply by the end of the decade. To get there, consumers mented and audited overwriting, reformatting or wiping
and institutional purchasers are encouraged to purchase of hard drives to ensure that sensitive data is not left on
Energy Star 4.0 compliant energy-efficient systems61 and unwanted equipment.67
use the power management tools with which they ship.
State initiatives share with the UN StEP program a
Servers are more energy efficient than PCs out of the joint approach that brings together sectors around a
box — wasting only 30 to 40 percent of input power common purpose. “We’re working with the private
but Climate Savers has a program for improving energy sector to make sure that when we put things to sur-
efficiency in server rooms and data centers too. plus, when we are actually disposing of equipment,
that we are part of a process that makes sure that we are
Climate Savers estimates that the price premium for
protecting the environment, says California CIO Teri
meeting high-efficiency targets will add less than $20
Takai, “We’re seeing many states that, like Michigan,
per PC and less than $30 per server — “and decline
partner with the Department of Environmental Qual-
toward zero over time.”62
ity and the Department of Information Technology to
The choices made in purchasing commodity technolo- make sure we’re walking the talk. It is important to
gies is the second most important sustainability decision us to make sure that as we’re disposing of technology,
an individual or organization makes. The first is the de- we’re doing it in a way that fits within the environmen-
cision of what to do with a server, PC or peripheral when tal quality constraints of the state.”
it has reached the end of its serviceable life. The problem
Many state and local waste departments will pick up or
is as large as the installed base — more than 800 mil-
accept used computer systems and other hardware and
lion PCs worldwide will be replaced between 2007 and
refurbish them for distribution to underserved individu-
2012.63 A global problem has attracted a global response.
als and nonprofit groups. In addition, many computer
Various agencies of the United Nations, with the support
manufacturers now offer recycling or lease programs,
of non-governmental organizations and major players in
and may even give discounts on the purchase of a new
the technology industry, stepped up with a joint initia-
system with the return of the old one. By Jan. 1, 2009,
tive for Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP). The solu-
electronics manufacturers will be required under Wash-
tions are measured by a three part criteria — they must
ington state law to provide recycling services that make
be “feasible, just and environmentally safe.”64
it convenient for consumers across the state to dispose of
Many U.S. states — Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, computers, computer monitors, laptops, televisions and
Maryland, Maine, Virginia and Washington — have other covered electronics. The services must be made
already passed legislation for the sustainable manage- available to recycle “computers used by households, small
ment of electronic waste. As noted previously, e-waste governments, small businesses, and charities.” Even at the
legislation is pending in another 26 states.65 state level, the implications are not trivial. The Washing-
For its part, the industry favors options for recovering ton State Department of Ecology, which administers the
value and minimizing the environmental impact of IT state electronic product recycling program, estimates that,
products, listed here in descending order: between 2003 and the end of the decade, “more than 4.5
4 Reuse of the product by others, including by other million computer processing units, 3.5 million cathode
businesses and consumers; ray tube monitors, and 1.5 million flat panel monitors
4 Reuse of components in used equipment and will become obsolete in Washington state” alone.68
refurbished spare parts markets; The improper or irresponsible disposal of old technol-
4 Recycling of materials into raw materials for use in ogy leaves communities and consumers subject to the
new products; whim of the law of unintended consequences. Consider
4 Energy recovery (that is, heat is captured from the the 2007 recalls of tens of thousands of lead-painted toys
recycling process and used for heating or other made in China, a country which is also a large-scale pur-
beneficial purposes); and, chaser of e-waste products for reclamation. Just in time
4 Responsible disposal of obsolete computer equipment.66 for the holiday gift-buying season, a study by professors
Three other variations warrant mention here. Cascading at Ashland University in Ohio found “highly leaded
aging machines within or across public agencies extracts trinkets sold in the U.S. bore the chemical fingerprints
the maximum serviceable life out of machines while manu- of lead from old computers.”69
facturers and other third parties offer to place donated That strikes very close to home.
computers to suitable charities for their use. Some manu-
18 Simply Green

19. Step 4: Home as the New Workplace:
With much of government’s carbon footprint consumed in the
commute, the greening of IT may finally provide an impetus
for telework that is equal to the resistance it has long faced by
entrenched bureaucracies and work rules.
Shorter is simply better when it comes to the distance Average Adoption of State Government
between home and where business gets done. That is Online Services
true in terms of the commute of public employees from Fishing & Hunting Licenses 54%
their residences to their workplaces, as we will discuss in State Parks & Campsite Reservations 56%
a moment, but it is also true of the distance between a
resident and where she needs to go to complete a trans- Criminal History Background Checks 90%
action with her government. Real Time Emergency Alerts 94%
Sex Offender Look Up 98%
The e-government initiatives of state and local govern- VIN Validation Search 88%
ments are paying a substantial sustainability dividend by Vital Stats Certificate Ordering 56%
eliminating trips between peoples’ homes and govern-
ment facilities. Today’s digital majority — approximately Hospital Accreditation Status Look Up 68%
70 percent of all American homes are connected to the Credential Status Look Up (Medical) 93%
Internet,70 more than half using broadband71 — is both Physician License Renewals 71%
accustomed to and prefers online self-service to standing Nurse License Renewals 68%
in line at a counter in a government building. Contractor Status Look Up 88%
The average adoption of state government online ser- Job Search 84%
vices (see table) demonstrates how half or more of many Unemployment Insurance Application 52%
transaction types have moved online. What was origi- Individual Income Tax Filing & Payment 52%
nally conceived of as a matter of convenience for citizens Benefits application & Status Look Up 61%
in the mid-1990s at the birth of e-government — de- Master Business Licensing 46%
livering services at a time and place of their choosing Business Registration Renewal 55%
— now helps in practical ways to save energy, reduce Business Tax Filing & Payment 44%
trips and contribute to the greening of communities and Employment Tax/ Wage Report File/Pay 48%
government. One example can be found in Utah, where Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Filings 67%
an average of 60,000 vehicle registrations are renewed UCC Searches 93%
online each month. “By reducing the number of citizens
Source: Center for Digital Government, Digital States Survey, 2007
who drive into a local office to renew their registration,
our e-government services contribute to the air quality
With much of government’s carbon footprint caused by
across the state of Utah by reducing gas consumption
the commute of public employees to and from concrete
and emissions,” says Kevin Park, assistant director of the
buildings and miles of asphalt parking lots, there’s still
Utah Division of Motor Vehicles.
the issue of the proximity of home to work. Public trans-
E-government also delivers paper reduction benefits. portation, informal car pooling and programs such as
One example can be found at the Maine Revenue Ser- Ride Share and commute reduction incentives have all
vices, where a single tax filing service is eliminating more attempted to mitigate the effects of getting public em-
than 40,000 sheets of paper per year from government’s ployees to work and back. Within the IT function, new
process flow. Online services not only save fuel and the generations of administrative tools allow staff to trouble-
ozone layer, but many trees are being saved as a direct shoot and monitor PCs, printers, scanners and network
result of electronic government’s growth. performance without having to travel from workplace to
workplace in the majority of cases.
A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT 19