Technology providers have been promoting the concept of green IT for years and have generated some interest in some verticals. Now the Chinese government, a huge IT consumer, is starting to focus and modernize its IT infrastructure toward green.

 

Because of the policymakers' lack of practical experience and green-qualification methodology, they have provided only high-level guidelines. As a result, organizations' response has not been as high as expected, particularly now that the economic recession has taken hold.

 

In order to push green IT one step further, now the government is using its power in the public sector to “greenify” the IT infrastructure, to gain practical experience for future green policies, and to outline the methods and benefits so that other organizations can follow.

 

In 2009, the Chinese government announced a 4 trillion yuan ($587b) economic stimulus package to counter the recession. A part of this investment is funding the government green IT renovation in the name of infrastructure modernization.

 

It opens new opportunities for IT providers. The target market includes central and provincial governments and the municipal governments in first- and second-tier cities, as well as government-funded education, healthcare and research organizations. In the longer term, we believe some state-owned enterprises, such as telecom, banking, transportation and utilities, will be also influenced to a certain degree.

 

Compared with enterprises, the government's green IT initiatives are significantly different.

 

The government cares more about limiting overall environmental impacts. For the government, the energy conservation and environmental protection around the processes of manufacturing, packaging, transportation, usage, disposal and recycling are also credible in vendor selection. It's not saying that power and cooling is not important, and in fact it is. However, the government is not looking at it from a budget control perspective, but with the aim of reducing energy consumption and becoming more environmentally friendly.

 

Vendors need to highlight the overall green features of their products – not just the cost containment benefits – in their green IT message targeted at the Chinese government. This could be by demonstrating a holistic technology or product

specification, including energy consumption and materials used, as well as recycling and reuse credentials.

 

The government's green initiatives are heavily driven by policies and regulations. There are many government agencies, departments and committees, in addition to many government-funded industrial associations developing policies and regulations, and many of them are about green IT.

 

Some policies and regulations are developed by the central government and apply to the whole country; some are focused on a region or a department. If the vendors can study these policies and regulations, they can find more opportunities.