Green IT

Controlling the energy consumed by Telefonica's IT systems and data processing centres requires the implementation of energy efficient practices and development of integrated internal procedures promoting efficient energy management.

Last year, the company established a Green IT working group charged with reducing energy consumption in Telefónica workstations and Data Processing Centres (DPCs).

This group is working on various projects, foremost among them those focussed on upgrading its IT systems to make them more energy-efficient and monitoring energy consumption in DPCs.

One specific example of initiatives developed by the Green IT team is the printer consolidation project in place in Brazil. In 2008, the Information Technology Department of Telesp-Brasil rolled out a Printer Consolidation programme that entailed removing from service 1200 printers with low usage indices in those cases where printing could be centralised in general-use printers by outsourcing the services to a single provider. This project has generated energy savings of 492,000 kwh/year, annual cost savings for the company of around € 40,000, and a reduction in CO2 emissions of approximately 42 tonnes per year.