How To Make Green On 'Green' Initiatives

Government customers say they're going green. And solution providers are looking to translate this into a winning sales opportunity.

Among the initiatives: Recent mandates have required lead-free computer products to protect the environment and end users from harmful emissions. And the federal Environmental Protection Agency is stepping up efforts to get more Energy Star-compliant products into agency cubicles. Server-consolidation projects are also picking up steam, thanks to what's dubbed as a "Green the Hill" initiative.

As a result of such projects, solution provider Accelera Solutions, Falls Church, Va., is seeing 10 percent growth in the federal sector. "Also, telework is being used extensively now at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the State Department," said Joe Brown, president of Accelera.

In fact, Dan Jacobs, CEO of Florida Micro, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based solution provider, said he hasn't seen this kind of unified movement for change since the dawn of the new millennium. "It's clear agencies are now required to procure environmentally friendly products that conserve energy," he said. "This will be like it was in the years leading to Y2K, where all new systems were required by many agencies that were not up to date."

Shawn McCarthy, director of research at Government Insights, Framingham, Mass., however, provides a cautionary note. "Most agencies will still do a detailed ROI analysis before committing to broad adoption of green IT," he said. "If the payoff for buying green appears to take too long, or if the return on investment can never be gained, then you won't see much more than a slow transition to more energy-efficient PCs and servers, only as new servers are needed. But whenever a positive ROI can be calculated, the change will be more substantial, all the way up to the data center level."