Little Miss Enviro Geek : Recycling

Some personal news...

biwirth — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Hello Dear Blog Readers,

(hmmm....that kinda sounds like the beginning of one of those SPAM emails)

I wanted to let you all know I am moving on from Microsoft and shall no longer be blogging here. I'll be moving an archive of these posts to my website http://www.greenitstrategy.com and shall continue blogging there on Green IT.

So what will I be doing now?

Well, I have decided to take some time off, write a book and maybe look into starting my own business. Regardless, you can always catch me through my website and please do feel free to visit me there.

Thank you to everyone who contacted me with their Green IT questions over the past two years and gave me feedback. I really appreciate your support and good luck with your own Green IT initiatives.

Kind Regards,

Bianca AKA Little Miss Enviro Geek

Talking Green IT @ DigiGirlz in North Carolina

biwirth — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:28:00 GMT

Today I presented on “Environmentally Sustainable IT” at the Microsoft DigiGirlz camp...two months ago I had no idea that Microsoft even ran this type of conference!

DigiGirlz is essentially a high tech camp for high school girls in the US and Sweden. I presented at the Charlotte, North Carolina event to about 110 students over 4 sessions. It was pretty cool - we never had anything like this for girls in high school when I was there (which was not that long ago – luckily one of the girls pointed out 30 is not old – phew!).

Anyway, I started off telling the audience about how I got into IT (fell into it), then explained some of the environmental issues IT is faced with today. The top 10 below are adapted from the book ‘Green to Gold’ by Esty & Winston:

Then I went on to talk about Waste Management:

- Over 130 million computers are being sold around the world today. Where the hell are these old computers going? Check out www.ban.org to view some pics on where the are going! Hardware manufacture initiatives on modular computers (for easier recycling) and recycling programs (like Microsoft MAR) help avoid these outcomes.

- The manufacture of a single computers takes the following resources (see http://www.unu.edu/zef/publications-d/flyer.pdf):

o 240kg / 528 pounds fossil fuels – more than 10 times the weight of the computer

o 22kg / 48.4 pounds chemicals

o 1500kg / 3300 pounds water

Massive!

I’ll talk about the rest of my presentation in future posts...or check out my session at Microsoft TechEd Australia this year... J

So at the start of this presentation I prepared myself for the fact that most of these 15/16/17 year old girls are not going to care about Green IT – but I told myself that if I encourage just 1 girl to be interested, then it would have been worthwhile – I am definitely an optimist J And it happened! In the last session of the day, one of the girls came up to me and asked why I do Green IT (she was concerned recently watching the whaling and polar bear issues). I told her about growing up on a farm and wanting to be a Park Ranger but not getting the marks from school (ahhh...slight rebel!). But I saw it physically ‘click’ with her when I told her I wrote a petition at school, went around the community to collect signatures for a local recycling program and sent it to my local council. She thought it was a fantastic idea for her own school and I hope she pursues it. As I have said in a previous post, I think sometimes the smallest wins are the best...

CDs bogging down your IT Dept? Go Digital...

biwirth — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:32:00 GMT

Even if you aren’t interested in the so-called concept of ‘saving the planet’, there is one thing you can do to help your IT department better manage your Microsoft software repository. When I was in an internal IT department we seemed to experience what I called "CD/DVD FEAST or FAMINE"! We would either receive a ‘tonne’ of CDs and end up throwing most out or have to find somewhere to store them (in our already cramped space!); or alternately we would spend ages trying to FIND a CD with the right software and the right volume licensing key!

To help with both the environmental and operational issues, Microsoft has introduced the concept of ‘Digital by Choice’ – which is essentially opting to have your Microsoft software downloadable via the central licensing site rather than sent out via CD/DVD, once your purchase order is processed by your LAR. This is pretty efficient as you can give access to those that require access to the software, and restrict it from those that don’t, and you get the software faster!

This program is available for any customer on a volume licensing program but for the meantime is limited to a set of pilot countries until 22nd August: US, Canada, UK, Norway, Sweden, Singapore and Australia. However for those of you outside these countries the program will be available from September - not too long to wait. Today there are very few Australian’s on this program (c’mon Aussies!).

To enable the program you just need to click on the 'Digital By Choice' icon in your Volume Licensing website:

Step 1...Click on the 'Digital By Choice' logo

Step 2... Click the link 'Join Digital by Choice NOW' to email your details to the licensing team

And if you ever want to disable the program, you can opt out at any time and start receiving CD/DVDs again.

Green IT Video: Interview with Microsoft IT Manager Australia

biwirth — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:25:31 GMT

In May I interviewed Jonathan Lewis, Microsoft Field IT Manager in Australia on his views of Environmentally Sustainable IT and what Microsoft Australia is doing in this space.

LMEG interviews Jonathan Lewis, Field IT Manager, Microsoft Australia, May 2008

Microsoft: Green TechReady, Green Partner conference, Green TechEd...

biwirth — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:11:00 GMT

Within Microsoft recently we have undertaken a number of initiatives to make our events more environmentally friendly. At TechReady, an event for internal softies to attend, they have published a number of initiatives, including:

All attendees will be given a reusable water bottle to fill at water cooler stations throughout the TechReady venues. Biodegradable cups will also be available at each water cooler station.
The majority of conference-created collateral, including pocket guides and notepads, will be printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper (processed chlorine-free, printed with vegetable-based ink).
Badge holders will be collected at the end of the event to be reused at future TechReady events.
The Conference Store will be stocking a variety of environmentally friendly merchandise.
Prizes for evaluation completion will include various solar-power gadgets.
Air-conditioning/heating and lighting will be minimized during off-hours to minimize power consumption.
Disposable plates and bowls utilized during certain meal times are made of 100% organically-grown bamboo, a renewable and biodegradable material. Cups, napkins and boxed lunch containers are also made with biodegradable and recycled materials.
Menus will incorporate a variety of locally-grown and organic ingredients. Left-over food will also be donated to area food banks.

They had a similar initiative last year which resulted in:

Recycled 14,240 pounds of mixed paper, glass, cans and plastic
Recycled 12,400 pounds of cardboard
Diverted 26,400 pounds of organic waste from the landfill and sent to compositing facility
Saved 38,000 disposable water bottles from the waste stream
5,000 pounds of leftover food was donated to the Farestart program for those in need
Nearly 700 badge holders were collected for reuse

At the Microsoft Australia Partner Conference this year, we have an award for Environment and Sustainability Solutions based on the Microsoft Platform. Check out Nick Mayhew’s Partner blog for details – judging will commence soon so if you are a partner, get your submissions in!

And finally in Australia at TechEd 2008 we are planning our own environmentally friendly initiatives – more announcements in this space soon!!!

Although some people might argue this is all contributing to greenwashing, I personally think that if Microsoft can improve the environmental efficiency of their events, it’s a huge boon for everyone, from the people that receive the unused food from the events (homelessness is a massive problem everywhere), to the attendees who can also feel good about recycling and reusing.

It's about doing the right thing...Westpac on Corporate Social Responsibility

biwirth — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:41:00 GMT

Last night I attended a Special Interest Group on Corporate Social responsibility, presented by Westpac. There was some great information, which I have distilled down and related back to Green IT on my website:

" "It's about doing the right thing"

This statement is how Alison Ewings started her talk on Westpac's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, presented at the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) on 20th May. Ewings went on to talk about how CSR programs based solely on financial benefits are likely to fail when 'times get tough', usually making them one of the first areas to be cut from budgets, and how it is the 'intangible' value of corporate social responsibility that most benefits business, aligning it back to her initial statement - "It's about doing the right thing".

There were a number of best practices such as developing business principals, internal and external CSR engagement programs and redefining purchasing policies presented, which could be easily converted to Green IT scenarios..."

Based on the Westpac recommendations, four key areas for a greener IT include:

setting up business principals
reviewing your IT purchasing policy
setting up reporting metrics
setting up a stakeholder framework

Checkout the complete article here: http://www.greenitstrategy.com/index.php?view=article&catid=5%3Apolicies&id=38%3Awestpac-corporate-social-responsibility&option=com_content&Itemid=10

Recycle PCs to your heart's content with Microsoft...

biwirth — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:48:00 GMT

Our Environment and Sustainability Director told me last night we have a refurb program for old PCs - I had absolutely no idea!

So I checked it out and there essentially 3 ways you can participate:

Donate a PC - all you need to do is find a Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher in your area and give them a call to discuss your donation. This is a great option for businesses doing their hardware refresh programs.
Refurb computers - so for this one you actually refurb the computers with Windows 2000 or Windows XP with Office 2003 standard and on-sell them. There is no charge to join the MAR program and you can be a commercial, non-commercial, public or private business.
Get a refurbished PC - refurbed computers are available for charity, education use plus some specially approved purposes. I checked out one of the refurbisher's sites and they had a P4, 2Ghz, 512MB RAM with 20GB HDD PC plus a monitor, mouse and keyboard for AU$280.00.

And it's not just Australia - this program is available all over the world - NICE! Got more Q's? Go to the FAQ's.

Iced Earth by Iced Earth, Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine & Learning to Live by Dream Theater