The continuation of my article on information and communication technology (ICT)’s carbon footprint was preempted by the Maguindanao massacre last Monday, so let me pick up on it today. I had said last Tuesday that the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII), led by its ICT “figurehead” (or “ghost in the machine,” as he calls himself) Andre Fournier, is shifting its focus from technology per se to making technology an integral part of business. The chamber is also championing the cause of sustainability, and one aspect of that is making technology more environment-friendly.
Andre related a conversation he had with councilors Leo Avila and Peter Laviña in which the two gentlemen asked him how the city government can save on electricity (not just to save money but, more importantly, to reduce its carbon footprint). Andre said he gave one very simple suggestion: turn off the city government’s computers for one hour during lunchtime. It’s an obvious solution that no one really thinks about; we are either ignorant or just too lazy to shut down our computers when we are not using them. Part of the reason is that there is the mistaken notion that turning a computer off and on repeatedly would damage it.
“As an IT professional,” Andre told reporters covering last week’s Club 888 Forum, “I can tell you that the only thing that can possibly get damaged when you turn a computer off and on repeatedly is the power button.” Nothing in a computer’s hardware and software suffers when it gets turned off and on in frequent intervals. And even if there were, the benefits in terms of power savings (and lower carbon footprint) more than make up for them. Computers use an average of 160 watts of electricity per hour; multiply this by the number of computers at City Hall and at the City Council building (which could easily run in the hundreds) and you’ve got a whopping Davao Light bill on computers alone. Turning them off for one hour will certainly save the city a significant amount and reduce the city’s carbon footprint.
Andre and I had coffee a few days after the Club 888 Forum and he talked at length about the other projects and thrusts the chamber is engaged in. The most significant is its partnership with IBM and ICT Davao in the advocacy of addressing the needs of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) through innovation and technology. The three groups are launching the SME Center (located at the DCCCII office) to expose SMEs to information technology as a business enabler. The center will also serve as the heard of the Davao City SME Center as it extends IBM’s aim of making a substantial contribution to SMEs, particularly in cities like Davao where IBM’s “geo-expansion” initiatives are concentrated.
Under the partnership, IBM is making available to DCCCII a Blade Server (inclusive of peripherals and enablement kit) worth P1.4 million. ICT Davao, for its part, commits itself to promoting and marketing the SME Center as a training and advocacy tool for Davao SMEs, as well as access to the SME Toolkit and other open source tools. It will also manage and oversee the maintenance of the desktop computers and other IT peripherals.
“This is the new thrust of the chamber,” Andre told me. “We reevaluated how we were selling the ICT industry, and we realized that we were seeing the other industries as just clients. ICT should be an enabler. It is not just another car on the road but a flyover that gives industries a shortcut to growth.” To be continued
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