Councils learn how to be green

Nov 29 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal

REPRESENTATIVES of 15 North-East councils gathered in Durham last week to hear how technology can be used to increase efficiency, improve collaboration, benefit the environment and cut costs.

Business and technology experts from Durham software firm Waterstons and Microsoft addressed the conference on topics identified by members of the Society of IT Management as of strategic importance to public sector organisations in the area.

The delegates learned how virtualisation technology could save the councils money, reduce the space they need to store IT equipment, improve the flexibility and responsiveness of their IT departments, offer robust business continuity and benefit the environment by cutting energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Waterstons’ technical director Andrew Kershaw said: “Servers worldwide currently gobble up an amazing 120 billion KWH of electricity each year, which is equivalent to 1% of global energy consumption or 14 medium-sized power stations.

“By embracing virtualisation technology, this figure could be reduced significantly, which would make a really positive impact on the environment around us.”

Ken Walker, an assistant director at Darlington Borough Council with responsibility for ICT, said: “Some of the larger councils in the area are leading the way and have already adopted these technologies, but Waterstons have demonstrated today that councils of all sizes can benefit.

“The public should see a big impact over the next few years as councils utilise technology to become greener, more efficient and most importantly offer a better service to our citizens.”