The IT industry is a major contributor to the looming energy crisis and the sector needs to honour its pledges to create an era of greener technology, writes RICHARD GILLIS

YOU KNOW how it is. You go to work one day and everything is the same as it always was. Same double shot soya latte on the way in, same chat with the bloke on reception (his kids are still fine, thanks).

Out of the lift and you walk down the aisles, there's some high fiving. You sit down at your desk, fire up the laptop and wait for the ping, ping, ping of e-mail hitting inbox. Then you see it, the Google News headline that changes everything. The previous evening, your boss has been out making a speech. But this is not just any public utterance, it's a "landmark speech" of the type that means you'll be eating lunch at your desk - today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future.

Tod Arbogast had this sort of day. Tod's boss is Michael Dell, the billionaire head of one of the biggest computer companies in the world. And last year, Dell promised to ensure that his organisation would be the "greenest technology company on the planet".

If, like Tod Arbogast, the plaque on your door reads, "Head of Sustainability (Dell Computers)", this would threaten to take over your whole day too. Make that your whole life.

This is because computers are not green. In fact, you may as well take your PC, fit it with an exhaust pipe and enter it in the Indy 500 for all the damage it does to the environment. Researchers Gartner estimate that the IT industry accounts for just over two per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, or, put another way, roughly equivalent to the airline industry.

Part of this is our own fault because we never turn them off. But they are also very inefficient to run. The average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third. Computer manufacturers have been churning out ever more powerful and power-hungry processors, far outstripping their usefulness.

According to Gartner, the average server is used for between 5 and 10 per cent of its capacity. Likewise, data storage facilities are using just 25-30 per cent of their capacity, but are routinely powered 24 hours a day. As a result, the IT industry has come under intense pressure to clean up its act, not least from its own customers. Major companies, with high server usage, are demanding greater efficiency. In this way the green movement is more about cost savings than altruism.

"We've seen a 56 per cent increase in average energy prices worldwide since 2002," says Tod Arbogast, who says that around 85 per cent of Dell's customers are business and government enterprises, with the rest made up of the consumer PC market. "Demand is predicted to grow by a further 53 per cent by 2030. So clearly there are challenges to reduce cost in our industry."

Energy efficiency is a differentiator in the industry, says Arbogast, adding Dell claims its new line of Blade computers are more energy efficient by around 10 per cent than similar products from IBM and HP. "Customer demand associated with energy efficiency is becoming a critical factor in their buying decision." He points out that many public sector procurement bodies are increasingly focusing on suppliers' environmental performance when making purchasing decisions.

In this area, Dell's experience mirrors that of the industry as a whole. Today's generation of high-end servers use four times the power of their predecessors and a similar amount of electricity is needed to dissipate the heat they generate. Gartner's figures show that energy costs will rise from their current average of around 10 per cent of a company's IT budget to a whopping 50 per cent at the end of the decade.

The problem for Arbogast is that Dell's claims for its green credentials are in danger of being subsumed by the greenwashers out there.

"The challenge for Dell is to differentiate between leadership and marketing. This is down to showing that we are taking demonstrable actions - this is not just a messaging exercise."

His remit on sustainability means approaching the green question from a "holistic" point of view. This means breaking what the company does into four key areas. These relate to how products are designed, what happens in the operations phase of production, how they mitigate the environmental consequences of the acquisition and use of their products, and finally, how they respond to disposal at the end of product life. "We've taken concrete actions across each of these areas," says Arbogast.

"The dominant issue to address is climate change and we've invested heavily in delivering energy-efficient products, and we believe that in our PowerEdge product line we are leading the market. We are also investing in cutting emissions from our facilities and operations. We emit 400,000 tonnes of carbon, which is significantly lower than many of our competitors, and we feel that our manufacturing and business model means we lead in the carbon intensity of our operations. However, we appreciate the need to do more and we have committed to reducing energy consumption".

Arbogast claims the company eliminates 94 per cent of its waste. "That lowers our cost and drives environmental benefit," he says. And on recycling, customers can send back components and Dell absorbs the cost.

Arbogast points to this activity when Dell is accused of jumping on the green bandwagon. "Some of these things are demand-driven. Some are about cost-optimising. And some are to do with taking leadership, doing the right thing. Michael Dell is deeply committed to environmental leadership. Some companies are not deeply engrained and might only be focused on one of these, not all three."

As part of this push for industry leadership, Dell has partnered with Plant a Tree for Me, a scheme that offers customers the opportunity to offset their carbon emissions from running their PCs. Critics suggest that to guarantee projected emission reductions from forestry projects is a near impossibility. Arbogast remains a fan of the scheme, however.

"The starting point for Plant a Tree for Me was the Stern review's conclusion that 20 per cent of the climate change challenge is the result of deforestation and environmental degradation. That means that at a macro level, forestry has a significant role to play in mitigating climate change, while at a micro level we feel tree planting is an effective way of reaching out to customers and getting them to engage with climate change."

Later this year, or early next, mobile devices will outsell their desktop equivalents in the computer industry for the first time. Mobility, says Arbogast, brings opportunity for teleworking and freedom from the office. This all sounds great in theory, but those with longer memories will remember the green promises of the IT industry first time around. The paperless office would mean less of the world's forests would be stripped bare and video conferencing was deemed an end to unnecessary business travel. The reality turned out differently.

The modern office shows little sign of giving up its dependency on paper and the computers we use are contributing to heating up the planet at an unsustainable rate. Rather than free us from drudgery, the IT industry is a major contributor to the looming energy crisis. This time we need them to keep their promises.