Lately it seems I'm surrounded by green. I'm not referring to the summer grass and trees in my backyard or the movie Shrek. As I write this column, the McDonald's corporate office where I work is celebrating Green Week by offering opportunities to purchase reusable shopping bags (ChicoBags, as seen on Oprah) and compact fluorescent lightbulbs and awarding raffle prizes for delivering office papers to be shredded in order to reduce waste. My son's university recently sent a note informing me that all dorm room mini-fridges and microwaves must bear the Energy Star label. We already know that by not driving our cars we can reduce emissions and by recycling paper, aluminum, and plastic, which many of us have done for years, we can reduce waste and save thousands of trees. But did you know this:

• If your toilet is from 1992 or earlier, you probably use 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush. Newer toilets use 1.3 gallons per flush — 60 to 80 percent less. Over 10 years, one high-efficiency toilet can save a family of four roughly $1,000 and translates to water savings of two billion gallons per day across the country (source: epa.gov).
• The average American produces over 24 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Now multiply that by 299 million people. In case you're wondering, a ton of carbon dioxide fills six double-decker buses (sources: onetonco2.com and greenenergy.uk.com).
• If every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an Energy Star-qualified CFL, it would save enough energy to light more than three million homes and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 800,000 cars annually (source: energystar.gov).
• If every household in the U.S. replaced one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100 percent recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees (source: nrdc.org).
• If each household in the U.S. replaced its appliances with the most efficient models available, we would save $15 billion in energy costs and eliminate 175 million tons of heat-trapping gases (source: ucsusa.org).
• If you plant 18 trees, you can offset the average PC's annual emissions (source: thegreenguy.typepad.com).

For years, I've been doing my share by carpooling or taking the train to work; recycling almost all paper, aluminum, and plastic; and using cold instead of warm or hot water to do laundry. But frankly, that's been the extent of it. Now, with today's greater environmental awareness (who could've missed Al Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary?), I am realizing that I can do more. So can you. Your contribution to a green, clean environment can go beyond your personal habits at home and extend to the office. I'm not referring to recycling paper and soda cans. I'm referring to a whole new trend in IT — going green in the data center.

Global warming is on everyone's mind and agenda, and most people agree that our planet is getting warmer. I miss the -80 degrees Fahrenheit windchills and thigh-high snowstorms that we used to have in Chicago (I know that's hard to believe!). Because of the rise in water temperatures (as little as 2 degrees), when I dive in the Caribbean, I no longer see as much coral and sea life as I saw only five or six short years ago.

Yes, indeed, the globe is getting warmer. With the proliferation of computers, there's no question that we're turning up the environmental thermostat even higher. According to the Gartner Group, approximately 0.75 percent of carbon dioxide emissions is related to servers and PCs. Add to that the energy necessary to cool these servers, and we're talking real impact. Although IT folks are rarely asked to consider the greenhouse effect when making IT decisions, this trend is about to change.

Just as global regulations limit the amount of emissions or chemicals that a manufacturing plant can dump into the environment, similar rules might soon affect data centers. There are also social and civil responsibilities to consider as companies tout their green-friendly products. Every company has a responsibility to preserve the earth by reducing waste and disposing of it properly, regardless of whether they use it in their marketing approach. Companies should also practice what they preach. For instance, a company such as Dell, which makes energy-efficient servers, should also take measures to reduce waste within its own walls. Even if unaltruistic in nature, a decision to help reduce the greenhouse effect can save your company and your IT department money.

In the U.S. alone, data centers are said to consume between 1.5 and 3 percent of all generated power (source: CIO Magazine). Unfortunately, IT departments and their data centers are usually unaware of their electric bills unless they manage the bill themselves, separately from the rest of the organization. Companies that do manage their electricity, such as Vista Print, claim to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by building more efficient data centers and replacing their high performance servers with more energy-efficient models.

A myriad of energy-efficient servers exists. Big computer makers such as IBM and Sun are designing servers that have more efficient internal blowers and fans. Makers of the cooling supplies used to reduce the heat rising from servers are replacing refrigerants with more environmentally friendly carbon dioxide contained in more efficient rack-based coolers. Chip makers such as Intel have also joined the green force by implementing chip-building processes that reduce the energy used. Sun and AMD make low-power, low-heat chips. Finally, the government passed a law in December 2006 allowing the EPA to evaluate power consumption in data centers. Companies and the government alike are beginning to offer financial incentives to organizations that reduce their emissions and use power more efficiently. If we join forces, we can make a difference by maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing negative environmental impact. IT can, in fact, help reduce the effects of global warming.

To do your part, you can take a number of steps. Perhaps the easiest step is to evaluate your server usage. If your organization is like most companies, it has many computers that have low utilization levels. Consolidating servers not only can serve the environment better but also can save you money. If you are a consumer of those high-performance processors, surely you know that they require huge amounts of power to run and cool. Consider using low-heat chips and servers designed to use less power. Use in-rack cooling when possible because of its higher efficiency. And bring in carbon-neutral processors as you retire your existing energy guzzlers. These processors are offered by the likes of Intel and VIA Technologies. What does "carbon neutral" mean? In the case of VIA, it means the company plants four trees for each processor that it makes, in effect canceling out the processor's environmental impact. Dell Chairman Michael Dell has instituted a similar program.

You can choose to be a nonbeliever. After all, some super-smart scientists claim that the last ice age took place over 400 million years ago, when it should have technically been quite warm because many active volcanoes spewed hot lava over the earth and carbon dioxide throughout the atmosphere. At that time, carbon dioxide levels were 20 times higher than they are today. So, how did it turn into an ice age? Just as I have read articles that tell me coffee is bad for me, I've read others telling me that it's good for me. The same is true with wine and low-dose aspirin. Which is better: a high-protein diet, a diet that includes no carbs, low carbs, low fat, or just watermelon and blueberries?

Over the years, scientists, nutritionists, and others have expressed their opinions about foods, drinks, diets, laundry detergents, and anything else you can think of. Arguments never cease when one individual or organization expresses an opinion, because others offer counter opinions. The difference with the greenhouse effect is that by the time it takes its toll, if it does, it won't be you and me who suffer the consequences. It will be our kids. I don't know about you, but I'll take the chance of being a believer. I can't go wrong.

For more information about this topic, check out Green Grid (thegreengrid.org) — a consortium of IT companies and professionals focused on reducing energy use in data centers.

Nahid Jilovec is a System iNEWS technical editor who has been in information systems consulting for more than 25 years in a wide range of industries with a focus on e-commerce. You can e-mail Nahid at nahid_jilovec@hotmail.com.