This investment in community digital assets as catalyst for economic growth can also bring about environmental benefits. Innovative use of energy efficient data centres and thin-client architecture can reduce the carbon footprint while increasing digital inclusion.
Deploying a thin-client and data centre solution compared to a conventional PC model can mean a reduction of 78% in CO2 emissions on a 5,000 user programme, according to research carried out by Sirius.
Equal benefits arise from a corporate and social responsibility viewpoint, too. As well as enabling a business to provide jobs, homeshoring can help reduce the environmental impact of the traditional monolithic call centre. A 2007 study estimates that the four million contact centre agents currently working in the UK, US and Canada produce more than six million tonnes of CO2 each year. Factoring in the impact of commuting as well as running the contact centre itself, homeshoring can offer a more environmentally sustainable solution.
Part of the programme will be to explore and develop alternative energy sources (e.g. microgeneration by wind turbines) to offset data centre energy requirements. The the data centre at the DEC in Liverpool Innovation Park is already one of the most energy efficient in the country, utilising a state-of-the-art water cooling system. It is estimated, that by using a combination of technologies including thin clients and virtualisation, the data centre will reduce expected CO2 emissions by up to 30%.
