Anna Jaeger, TechSoup Global

By now, you're probably aware that "green technology" exists. You might even be able to name a thing or two that would be considered green. But do you know if organizations like yours are using any of these technologies? Are they working or cost effective? Are you overwhelmed by the thought of trying to add environmental concerns on top of your other concerns about technology -- like affording it and having the expertise to chose, implement, and support it?

There are a few relatively easy things you can do to educate yourself and start saving your organization money while reducing your footprint. Many organizations out have already implemented many of these technologies.

I'm not talking about enormous companies who have their own data centers. I'm talking about organizations like yours that can be as small as 1 person.

In this article, I can barely scratch the surface of some of the more accessible green technologies. To learn more, please consider joining us at the Greening Your Technology session at the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference.

Green Software

If you're ready to start educating yourself about green, start by reading David Deal's article, "Greening Your IT Through Your Software Choices: How nonprofits can make greener decisions when acquiring software". It defines what "green software" is and explains a bit about how Software as a Service (SaaS), power management (sleep settings), and virtualization (using one computer as many), can be used by nonprofits.

Green Hardware

There are easy steps you can take to select greener hardware, or even eliminate some of your hardware by using hosted services. There are also a lot of resources out there to help you dispose of your hardware appropriately once it has reached the end of its useful life for you.

Selecting Greener Hardware

If you're going to buy new hardware, at a minimum, look for the Energy Star logo. Energy Star compliant hardware is more energy efficient than traditional computers. Better yet is to select new hardware that is rated gold or silver using the EPEAT criteria. EPEAT is a system that helps purchasers evaluate, compare, and select electronic products based on their environmental attributes. Most of the big names in computers can be found in the EPEAT list. All EPEAT-rated computers are Energy Star compliant, but not all Energy Star computers and monitors are EPEAT-rated. Both have searchable lists of compliant hardware.

Another easy way to select greener hardware is to buy refurbished equipment. You can save approximately 20 times the energy by extending the life of a computer, rather than getting a brand new one. Check out the environmental case for refurbished hardware on our TechSoup blog.

To replace printers, copiers, fax machines and scanners, consider multi-function machines. These single machines can take the place of 4 individual machines, thereby reducing the amount of energy consumed and the number of toxic materials used to make and dispose of the hardware.

Finally, consider not getting new hardware at all. There are services out there that can host your telecommunications infrastructure like voicemail and PBX, the system that takes in the calls from the outside and routes them to the right extension. Also, internet fax services have become practical, efficient, and safe ways to send and receive faxes, which not only removes the need for hardware, but also greatly reduces your use of paper and toner.

Safe Hardware Disposal

E-Waste is a big problem for a lot of us. How do you dispose of that closet of outdated hardware in a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly way, without compromising your data? Thankfully, there are some good resources to help you, like the Electronics Takeback Coalition. They have lists of responsible, certified refurbisher/recyclers, who will permanently destroy your data before properly disposing of your hardware. Included on their list are manufacturers who will also take back their equipment for little or no cost.

Green Practices

Green practices are much harder to define than the hardware and software. The biggest item to always consider is how to reduce waste. If you implement and use your systems in a lean way, you will save on resources, which will save on money -- and your systems will most likely run more efficiently. So, you're saving on money, time, and the environment all at the same time. Here are a few areas that you can begin to explore with regards to your systems and operations:

• Use conferencing and software tools to reduce travel
• Put your systems to sleep: use computer power management
• Reduce printer usage: consolidate hardware, use auto-duplexing (printing on both sides), and use print management software
• Examine data storage -- consider carefully what to keep and where to keep it
• Extend the life of your hardware
• Explore cloud computing

More at Our NTC Session

To learn more about these technologies and practices and to discuss what might work in your organization, please consider joining us at the Greening Your Technology session at the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference. Our session will start with a panel of three experts discussing green hardware, software, and practices and then we will break out into smaller groups to discuss what is practical in your organizations.

Questions we may delve into during the session:

• What are the challenges to implementing greener technology in your organization?
• What are the right questions to ask your IT consultants or staff or hosting provider?
• What are some tools to consider for your size organization?

I will be joined by experts like David Deal and Steve Lippman:

David Deal is founder and CEO of Community IT Innovators. CITI provides comprehensive technology support and consulting to social mission organizations and is passionate about creating and building social ventures that help create a better world.

Steve Lippman is the Director of Environmental Sustainability at Microsoft and has 15 years experience addressing environmental and corporate social responsibility issues for a broad set of companies and non-governmental organizations.

About the Author: Anna Jaeger is the Co-Director of the GreenTech Initiative (www.techsoupglobal.org/greentech) at the nonprofit TechSoup Global. GreenTech's mission is to help social benefit organizations reduce their environmental impact through the effective use of technology. GreenTech is part of the Green IT Consortium, which is a group of IT practitioners, consulting companies, vendors, design firms, nonprofit IT professionals, and others committed to greening the nonprofit technology sector. Ms Jaeger has previously held positions in IT consulting, medical research and human services. For the past two years, she has been the Treasurer of the board of directors Tradeswomen, Inc. (www.tradeswomen.org), a small California nonprofit.