LTA Saved Over $5.55 million Through Green IT

SINGAPORE’S Land Transport Authority (LTA) has saved over S$8.56 million (US$5.55 million) since embarking on its Green IT initiative.

One of the first government agencies in the island state to launch a green IT initiative, LTA had been successful in its earlier pursuit of going paperless with its e-services and online transactions for motorists and industry partners, which helped the agency gain more than $5 million in productivity improvements and $3 million in cost savings.

A joint task force between LTA and IBM’s Strategic Outsourcing division developed a green programme to fit LTA’s environment, covering the areas of Business Operations, Infrastructure and People. Initial pilots in the past 12 months have yielded savings of about S$560,000 (US$363,000).

The pilots include: • The replacement of ageing IT assets with Energy Star (ES) compliant devices which can reduce energy consumption by 50 per cent or about 500kg of carbon emission per PC annually. This amounts to S$150,000 (about US$97,000) in cost savings per annum.

• The adoption of Green Guidelines for the procurement, deployment and disposal of IT equipment ranging from desktops to servers. The guidelines were adapted from several international standards including EPEAT, IEEE 1680, IEEE 1621 and the European Union RoHS (Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations) Directives.

• The assessment of data centre energy efficiency with the use of thermal imaging technology to identify airflow efficiencies and hotspots. This has since resulted in the layout re-alignment of LTA data centres/control centres, reducing energy consumption by 20 per cent and achieving a cost savings of S$150,000 (US$97,000) per annum.

LTA also collaborated with a local polytechnic and IBM to develop an Energy Monitoring System to track and manage energy usage of all computing devices. When fully implemented, the system will be able to help reduce energy costs by at least S$100,000 (US$65,000) per annum.

Source: http://www.futuregov.net/articles/2009/mar/10/singapore-agency-saves-millions-through-green-it/