Look at your total energy bill, including electricity and back-up. For most sectors today, one percent of top line can be interesting.
Capex example: Expansion or consolidation; for example, 400 seats going to 550 seats.
* Are you in a power cut zone?
* Can your power backup handle it?

Why have the backup envelope?
In the day time, the backup envelope is for supporting the complete operation of your organization. Everything has to be backed up during the day. What about the night? You may be spending more on backup on infrastructure that is not used! Some of the things we've seen people do and explore include:
* Natural light/minor rewiring
* Replacement policy: lights etc.
* LCDs, laptops; these may not directly apply, if you have a Capex freeze
* Cooling/insulation
* Server/app consolidation, virtualization? A lot of people have been looking at this area. We are exploring at Cybermedia how we can consolidate so essential services are on maybe, 1-2 servers. Server consolidation may require a different, focused approach.

Standby power use? This can be pretty huge. If you are using standard phones, the power is 1-2W, If IP phones, the standby power is 8-10W. There are some vendors who give some energy efficient IP phones.

Is there someone in your organization charged with looking after your energy bill?
Most CIOs from the manufacturing segment indicated that yes, there is someone looking into this. However, so far, we have not come across CIOs who are in charge of the energy bill. This role requires the person access to lot of information; knowledge about green building standards; and measurements for green energy are also required.

A CIO has to do correct, detailed assessment of the current process within the company. This is an area you can take up without treading on toes. This is something a CIO can actually take up, and look at as a role beyond the relevant domain of IT. They can look at the major leakage areas.

Green is good for business -
* Savings in capex and opex; small to big; short to long term.
* Corporate image; you may got support from the CEO if you have an overall picture.
* CIO opportunity; they can go to IT and beyond.