Environment Agency buys £336 million of green IT

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The Environment Agency is practicing what it preaches by spending millions of pounds to green up its IT.

It has just signed a seven-year contract with Capgemini, costing £336 million, in a bid to reduce its carbon emissions by 50 per cent in the next few years.

The design of the project has taken into account a number of green issues such as energy savings for individual users to the production and transportation of hardware.

In addition to reducing hardware, the company plans to reuse and recycle the bare metal with all disposals following strict environmental guidelines.

Graham Ledward, director of Resources at the Environment Agency, said in a statement: “This contract not only aims to exceed the Government’s sustainable IT targets, it also sets a high standard for environmental performance which we hope that other public sector organisations and businesses would wish to reflect.”

He added: “The real message of success is that a green IT contract can be frugal, cost-effective and environmentally beneficial. The Environment Agency is not only reducing its carbon emissions, it’s also saving money in the long term. We will effectively do more for less.”

In addition to reducing carbon emissions, the new contract aims to cut costs for the public sector authority both in the short term and for savings on operations into the future.

Christine Hodgson, vice president and member of the Capgemini Group Executive Committee, said in a statement: “We believe this contract should become a benchmark that will shape and influence how other organisations in the public and private sectors adopt sustainable IT as a business benefit, and that where the Environment Agency has led, others will inevitably follow.”

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