95 BUSINESS ADVICE Visit: www.prodriveit.co.uk/about of heat (which requires more energy for cooling). By moving IT programmes to the cloud, companies can benefit from a data centre that makes much better use of computing power and enjoy a more robust, secure and scalable system. If your teams are also guilty of storing more files and emails on computers than necessary, now’s the time to tidy them up. Whilst it might not make a massive difference to energy consumption, deleting unused files will help keep systems functioning as they should and reduce storage needs, minimising the cost of backing things up to the cloud. 4. Invest in durability Anything from old PC systems to ageing fridges can use up power unnecessarily, so upgrading to more energy-efficient equipment is crucial. However, it’s also important to consider the impact of electronic waste that often ends up in landfills. Buying the most powerful devices with extended warranties when replacing legacy systems will help ensure they stand the test of time. You can also adopt specialist software to measure the carbon emissions and energy consumption produced by your business’ IT. For example, Microsoft Azure’s Power BI plug-in has an Emissions Impact Dashboard feature that calculates your cloud-based carbon emissions. As a bonus, Microsoft is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030. So, if you replace your server with Azure, it’ll be carbon neutral by the same date! 5. Optimise remote working Encouraging staff to work from home reduces the number of commuters and significantly decreases emissions. But with more companies operating a remote or hybrid working structure, it’s worth taking measures to improve the energy efficiency of home offices. From swapping halogen light bulbs for LEDs to installing solar panels, there are plenty of small changes people can make — and organisations can incentivise — to minimise carbon footprints. Of course, these are all things companies can also implement in offices to keep costs down — especially with the likelihood of workers coming into the office to minimise their personal energy bills increasing this winter. To conclude, optimising remote working systems, upgrading old software or embracing cloud computing to meet sustainability targets and save money, is clearly the way to head, but in order to get it right, it’s key to ensure the support of a specialist business IT provider is enlisted to guide the business in getting it right.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0NTE=