Lately everybody is talking about green: green this, green that! What is this hype all about it? Do we really need all of that or is it just another good intention that will pass like so many things in the past? I do not think so and this is why:

First of all, green is a must in today’s business environment. The customer wants it and the customer gets it. If not from you, then from somebody else. You have no choice! Now what is green exactly?

Everybody thinks that green IT is the big thing, you know, server virtualisation to save energy, space and maintenance costs. Yes, that is part of it but hey, that is only 2% of the costs for not being green!

So where is the rest then? Guess! Yes, it is in all the other processes the company has. Just to give you a little hint: A/C effectiveness, travel costs, supplier compliance with green principles, employee transportation, recycling of waste, water usage, paper flow through the company and so on and so forth.

Talk to your board and they will tell you that this costs a lot of money to fix all these things and that it needs people to do that.  But do you have a choice?  Nope, no choice, you need to do it.  If you are in IT like me, green is a double whammy! You need to be green in IT and that alone is quite a job but for the reminding 98% you need to be involved as well.  How would you know if you improved and saved money if you cannot measure it?  And here is the next issue you deal with, before you can report on the savings, you need to measure the actual and even before that, you need to know what you want to measure and why.

See, green is not an IT problem, it is a problem that touches the whole company and to be successful in the green initiative you need to be lean also.  So here a suggestion on how to start:

1. Collect your main processes in the company
2. Analyse these processes for process effectiveness and efficiency
3. Measure the time, money and resources the current process uses
4. Redefine the process to optimise the flow of the process and therefore use less time
5. Note areas where you see potentials for being greener
6. Implement the lean process
7. Start to realise the potential areas for your green initiative and save even more money
8. Lean can save you 15+ % easily and green, well, SAP saved in one year $120 million worldwide by just realising the low hanging fruit.
9. Do not forget to enjoy what you are doing!

You, the IT person, are driving the cost savings but 98% is for the benefit of the business!  They will love you!

The book in one go combines lean, green and what I like even more: a paperless live! In principle, the idea is not new but Bell took it to the next level.  He is completely connected and he claims that he does not have to remember a thing because he can recall every bit of information in an instant.  The big thing is to get started with the stacks, heaps and piles of paper we have even in our companies and there are companies out there who can help you with that.

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The author is CIO MAS Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd, Sri Lanka.