1. You don’t have to spend a lot of Green to be Green.
“Once you take the first
step, it all comes easy.”
says Matt Hilla, Director of Information Tech-
nology for Esker Software. He is at the fore-
front of a new notion in the world of IT: think-
ing ‘Green’.
While many corporate IT leaders are
concentrating on future gadgets, Matt is look-
ing at a different future - one in which utility
costs and electronic wastes are greatly re-
duced. In his short time at Esker, Matt has
managed to already succeed on both of these
fronts.
Utilizing his role in planning Esker’s new
US corporate office, he started making small
changes that grew into a movement across
the whole company.
“During my planning, I noticed we had a
lot of stored up waste. Copiers, printers,
computers, monitors. All this outdated equip-
ment and no use for it. When I called [local]
disposal companies, they didn’t have a recy-
cling program for these items.”
In order to combat the problem, he in-
ventoried the equipment on hand, and started
a campaign to find homes for all the old as-
sets. He sent the lists to schools, charities, and
church organizations.
“I went for the organizations where we
could score a tax-credit for making the dona-
tion.”
Esker’s donated asset value totaled
nearly 1 million dollars. A large number for
most midsize companies.
“I told our CFO the initial number fore-
cast, and she hugged me.”
This was just the beginning. Next, he
contacted local legislative branches to find
environmental tax incentive programs for
regional businesses. What he ended up with
was a wealth of information.
“...there was just so much out there. So
many programs. I gathered up my depart-
ment and started asking for volunteers to go
through it all.”
By the end of the week, his team had
narrowed the list down to 15 potential pro-
grams ranging from green recycling for the
cafeteria, to wind power incentives for the
server rooms.
“When I told the board that IT is going
to run 100% off renewable energy by the end
of the year - and manage to decrease costs -
they laughed. I knew better.”
To offset potentially higher wind-power
costs, Matt started replacing older core sys-
tems with newer, more efficient servers. He
recouped some of the purchase costs by utiliz-
ing utility incentives for Energy Star TM
branded equipment.
“With the newer servers, I was able to
scale way down on operational footprint. I
made sure to use a virtualized, redundant
layout. This allowed running multiple envi-
ronments in the least amount of space possi-
ble.”
Less computers meant less heat. Matt
was able to decommission one of the main AC
units that cooled the server room. He found a
local building contractor to buy the old unit,
and used the money to add additional insula-
tion to the room, as well as a newer UPS.
“Within 3 months, we were only pulling
35% of the power we previously were. This
equated to thousands of dollars in savings per
month.”
All together, through his use of tax incen-
tives, local programs, and lower operational
expense, Matt was able to amass a potential
savings for Esker of 2.5 million dollars, de-
spite new equipment costs.
“My operational labor costs were also
greatly reduced, due to the reduction of man-
aged assets, making my team a bit happier.
Oh yeah, it made the board happy too.”
“There is no reason IT, and other sectors,
can’t be more environmentally conscious.
All it takes is a little creative thinking.”
SAVING COSTS
AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
GreenIT
“There is no reason IT, and other sectors,
can’t be more environmentally conscious.
All it takes is a little creative thinking.”