Vertatique has assembled a guide to Green Media Production Practices for production and postproduction professionals and organizations. The practices are drawn from the author's industry experience and from material circulated by the media departments of American Family Insurance and Target. Click here to view the Vertatique Green Media Production Practices.

The EPA Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency found that "The peak load on the power grid from these servers and data centers is currently estimated to be approximately 7 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to the output of about 15 baseload power plants and "power failures and limits on power availability will interrupt data center operations at more than 90 percent of all companies over the next five years." This was written in August 2007:

The U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ now has a LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance component. Points are awarded for a number of e-green practices, including telecommuting and sustainable purchases of IT and media electronics. Use of EPEAT-rated computers and monitors is specifically noted as "exemplary performance".

Organizations assessing the value of e-green now have another factor to consider: employee recruiting and retention. The latest Adecco USA Workplace Insight survey found "American workers are paying growing attention to companies’ environmental policies and an increasing number (36 percent) report that they would be more inclined to work for ”green” companies." The report continues:

As many as 15 million analog television sets may be removed from American homes over the next two years as analog over-the-air (OTA) broadcasting is terminated in favor of digital-only signals (DTV). According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) survey report "Trends in Consumer Electronics (CE) Afterlife", consumers intend to sell, donate, or recycle 95%. Will this really happen . . . ?

The McKinsey / Uptime Institute report Revolutionizing Data Center Efficiency, available as both a PowerPoint and a podcast, contains a wealth of current and projected data on energy utilization and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, including information about what various enterprises are doing. Among its findings:

Here are some public data centers advertising "green" computing . . .

I'm under no illusion that enterprises don't try to secure advantage from the green initiatives featured in Vertatique and I believe it is appropriate for an organization to credibly promote its meaningful progress toward sustainability. But those seeking to do so should be mindful that they are facing a skeptical and savvy audience, according to a survey from Burst Media:

An number of organizations have developed "green" ratings for computers and consumer electronics, and for these products' manufacturers.

Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics uses company ratings based on the Tech Toxic campaign. Samsung, Toshiba, Nokia, Sony, Dell, and Lenovo topped its list; Panasonic, Philips, Microsoft, and Nintendo fall at the bottom. Greenpeace credits its Green My Apple campaign with spurring Apple's belated A Greener Apple initiative.)

PC Magazine's The Green PCs offers detailed information about how it rates individual machines. Highly rated were units from Apple, Compaq, Dell, Everex Zonbu, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

Citing industry and government sources, Baseline reports that "facility costs have climbed from about 2 percent of budgets to 5 percent . . . that number will zoom up to 30 percent within just a few years . . . data center power consumption is due to significantly increase in just the next three years, by at least 40 percent." Are CIO's responding by deploying the ever-growing range of technologies and practices that they can find here at Vertatique?