Green IT Workplace – Optimizing the Use of IT Equipment by our Employees
As a software company, the highest potential for SAP to save energy lies within our data center but we can also significantly increase our savings by managing our workplaces more efficiently by implementing several changes to reduce energy, manage e-waste and foster dematerialization.
SAP Green IT Client Technology: Our workplaces are managed carefully
SAP employs more than 69,000 people around the world. By instituting green IT practices for our large employee base, we have and can continue to make significant progress toward SAP’s sustainability goals. Since 2008 we have continually implemented new initiatives that have reduced our IT equipment and its CO2 consumption.
SAP IT is optimizing the lifecycle of our IT products starting with the initial consideration during the product selection phase (EPEAT and Energy STAR are part of our purchasing criteria catalogue) to ending with optimal disposal or reuse for good ecological balance. E.g. PCs are used 1-2 years by developers and afterwards consistently reused by office users. Also high performance notebooks for fairs are handed over after 1-2 fairs to our employees. IT equipment that is no longer functioning is globally consistent disposed by our global certified supplier. Last but not least it is of course our goal to reduce the number of devices per employee. 2014 we strive for a ratio of maximal 1,10 devices per employee (more info).
Further the Printer Optimization Project optimized our printing infrastructure, standardized on multi-functional devices and reduced paper by setting double-sided printing as the standard. These changes have resulted in a 35% reduction in paper consumption and toner by 26%. In 2014 we started to introduce Secure Pull Printing on all multifunctional printers.
Since 2011, SAP IT has installed a power management solution on all Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs and notebooks (approximately 94,000. This solution enables an energy reduction of up to 25%.
TelePresence room
Finally, another area we are focused on is virtual collaboration. SAP IT provides the tools that make it easier for employees to collaborate over distances, in virtual teams and home offices to reduce travel-related carbon emissions. These tools include SAP’s primary conferencing solution, SAP Connect which provides each user with their own meeting room that can be accessed with one click, over 500 Video Conference, 53 TelePresence rooms worldwide and Microsoft Lync as the standard office phone and for small meetings.
Crucial points for a Green Workplace - Involve Employees & be transparent
The success of green IT activities is dependent on the support from all employees. Communication is therefore crucial to our success. To ensure employees are informed and engaged, SAP has created awareness by organizing focus weeks (on the topics energy, printing and recycling), and published internally a sustainability e-guide with tips and tricks on how employees can contribute to SAPs sustainability goals.
To increase the transparency of our results, we published within the SAP corporate portal easy-to-read dashboards that track the companies’ paper and energy consumption so employees can gain insight. Doing this not only provides information that all involved can share with external audiences; it also helps to keep motivation strong within our enterprise.
Moving Forward
Currently we focus on saving flights with virtual collaboration. Our goal is to make our tool portfolio so attractive to employees that they even replace important face to face-meetings by virtual meetings. Therefore we are rolling out new tools and working on interoperability solutions to offer employees the right tool for every situation.
How do you better manage your workplaces? Contact me to share experiences and discuss strategies on how to move forward.
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