Inside the Energy Efficiency Cubicle

. Before the call took place, I reserved a conference room and invited the IT managers from PHH to attend. The message about temperatures in data centers immediately reached its intended audience from a very credible source. Now, I’m working with the energy-conscious IT department to increase the temperature in the data centers at PHH. I am currently working on quantifying the savings from this increase; which I believe will be substantial.

As this example illustrates, energy efficiency is easy money and good business. While there is no upfront cost of increasing the temperature set-point in a data center, some of the other projects I am considering do require an initial investment. Yet, by analyzing these projects from a financial perspective, just like a company does with any other investment they make, I am finding that these projects are smart business ventures with high returns, low risk and quick pay-backs. So, as a business student and environmentalist, I’m proud to sit at the energy efficiency cubicle, formed by the benefits these projects have on the environment, energy usage and to a company’s bottom line.

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