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Climate change is no more a fancy technical term to be debated by scientists and researchers, rather a hard reality that is affected and felt by all of us. For centuries, man had been oblivious to the impact his actions had on the ecology. Thus, unhindered environmental degradation and pollution continued unabated under the garb of progress. Every detrimental action was excused with the term, for a better tomorrow.

But now that tomorrow seems to be turning into today, we seem to have started seeing the fruits of our actions. A vivid example could be this years winter and summer in the city of Mumbaiboth being unusually harsh. It is obvious that there is a shift taking place, and, undoubtedly, a shift for the worse.

The scenario seems to be pretty bleak and beyond our control, isnt it? So, is there anything that we can do, and is there anyone who can save us? The answer to both the questions is no. Just because the problem is on us, does not mean that the solution is beyond us. In fact, each and every one of us is a part of the solution. I firmly believe that if every single individual, including you and me, were to make a concerted effort towards saving electricity and not polluting our environment, the solution would appear by itself. The onus is very much upon us, and every small step will go a long way in fighting climate change. Let me share with you my experiences borne over years of running IT systems at the State Bank of India.

One might wonder how the IT and environment might be related? The answer is not hard to guessin almost all modern organizations, IT systems are the biggest guzzler of power. Thus, IT departments can become the harbinger of change and lead the way in terms of environmentally friendly practices. But typically, when companies talk of Green IT, they refer to concepts like green data centers, virtualization, green storage, mainframes, blade servers, etc. There seems to be a lot of hype around these concepts with various vendors trying to sell their products under the green garb.

Personally, I feel that while all this is indeed a part of the Green IT movement, this is certainly not the be-all and end-all of it. There is lot more to the greening movement and it touches almost every aspect of business and requires participation of all employees. Going by my bankers hunch, I believe that the best person who can give advice on green is someone who is not directly related to IT and is not a technologist.

At my office in Navi Mumbai, employees have been asked not to wear jackets or ties, as this helps us run the air-conditioning systems at 24 C. According to certain estimates, 24 C is the optimum temperature for running an AC and saves as much as 30% electricity compared to systems running at 20 C.

Indiscriminate paper usage is another practice that we really need to curb. How often do we think before we press Ctrl P. Nothing makes me sadder than when I see IT professionals themselves using paper instead of the digital medium. Take for instance all these big seminars, where you are loaded with tons of reports and brochures, one can not even imagine the number of trees that were chopped and turned into pulp solely to print all those copies. A simple CD, or better still a pen drive, would have been more than sufficient in doing the same thing. The good thing is that I am witnessing a change, a sort of consciousness on being more environmentally friendly. Even at SBI, we make a concerted effort to use as little paper as we possibly can.

Lighting systems also consume a lot of power in an office. First up, we have replaced all the bulbs with CFL and tube lights to ensure less consumption. Also, in my data center, I ensure that all the lights have been switched off. There is little need for lights in a data center, except for bare minimum.

We have also invested heavily in videoconferencing and use it extensively at SBI. All our local head offices, zonal offices, training institutes are connected through VC, and we use it extensively for meetings and communication. In fact close to 99% of my meetings across the length and breadth of India are conducted while sitting in my office. This helps us save travel related pollution, reducing our carbon footprint, and simultaneously saving quite a tidy sum of money.

Solar power is another area that we are looking at keenly. Currently, at our housing complex in Nerul, we have installed solar water heaters, thereby nullifying the need for geysers in the complex. We are also looking at implementing solar power at other levels in our everyday functioning.

Another interesting initiative came out of a project that I had initiated at my home in Lucknow. To reduce the heat during peak summers, I installed four empty coal-tar drums on my roof and filled them with manure. In the same I grew snake gourd creepers. Within a few months, the vegetable creeper covered the entire roof and there was an appreciable drop in room temperatures. This went a big way in reducing the load on the air-conditioners and coolers that we had to run during hot days. Also, the snake gourd came as a bonus for all of us. This experiment was replicated at one of our branches in West Bengal, and will soon become a norm at our offices.

Designing a data center that is specifically designed to be environmentally friendly is another project that we are currently working on. We intend to build a data center from scratch in a manner that completely optimizes power usage. Currently, we are looking for consultants who can help us design the same.

These are a few of the jugadu green initiatives that have been put in place. They go a long way to prove that being environmentally friendly is not about doing ecologically sound things, but about mindset. One needs to be conscious and, more importantly, make a conscious effort towards reducing carbon footprint. After all, this is our world, if we dont care for it who will?

In the past people were very conscious about the things like power usage, switching off the lights when not in use. Of late, with economic prosperity this consciousness seems to have vanished. Small things like taking a public transport, whenever possible and convenient. One needs to be conscious and more importantly make a conscious effort towards reducing the carbon footprint.

I personally believe, that we Indians are one of the most eco-friendly race, we almost recycle everything we use, from old garments to used cupboards. Remember, how as kids, we used to learn making things out of waste. It is all inherent in us, we just need to revisit it. After all, this is our world, if we dont care for it, who else will?

SK Sehgal
The author is GM, IT, State of India. An avid environmentalists, these are his personal views
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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