It's not easy being green, but it doesn't have to be that difficult either.

Basements and garages are often more than just storage  areas--they can be like limbo for outdated technology that we know shouldn't be put out with the garbage, but we don't know how to dispose of it.  I have (at least) two old computers in my basement (I listed the monitors on Freecycle and they went quickly).  Now take that basement concept and apply it to a large company.

GSK occupies a combined 32 floors in two buildings in Franklin Plaza in Philadelphia, and employees had become accustomed to scattered empty and unused work stations with computers and monitors--many still plugged in.  That is until Armin, our regional IT service manager, had enough. 

He decided to stage a massive environmentally responsible house cleaning across Franklin Plaza.  It required 35 volunteers--"e-cycle champions" they were called--to tag the equipment set for removal on each floor, remove it, and load it onto trucks to be hauled away to an IT asset disposal company.  There was an extensive awareness campaign in advance of the event, which took place over one week.

The plan worked--we collected nearly 1,000 devices weighing 5.8 tons, including desktops, monitors, laptops, fax machines, typewriters (typewriters!), keyboards, mice, scanners, and other accessories; we reduced the site's annual electricity consumption by 190,442 kWh for a savings of $21,000 per year; and reduced CO2 output by 285,663 pounds per year.

Some of the collected gear was outdated and ended up being recycled, but other devices were usable and were resold. "The number of assets that do have value will generate a 60 percent return back to GSK from the resale," Armin reports. "As GSK 'e-cycles' all its tech-refreshed assets, the revenue generated in 2008 from the US alone was over $1 million."

For Armi and his team's efforts, GSK was honored as one of  InfoWorld's Green 15!  "With the world so technology-driven," he said, "landfills are increasing in size with these materials, some of which are toxic and some of which will never biodegrade. I believe we in the IT industry now have a social responsibility to reduce the volume of tech waste and the energy it consumes as much as possible."

I couldn't agree more.  Thanks, Armin--and happy Earth Day!

(Green 15 logo used with permission.)