Green buildings don’t happen by chance. They involve a conscious effort to incorporate green elements into the corporate fibre. This is how Nedbank was able to win the overall Green award at the SAPOA Awards for 2011 for its new Rivonia Road Offices.

Dimension Data , who partnered with Nedbank on the design and installation of the ICT infrastructure for the building, is a green business itself and a member of the internationally recognised Green Grid . As a systems integrator it is as committed to assisting clients achieve their green ambitions as it is to driving productivity, cost efficiencies and other business imperatives.

Nic Shaw, general manager for Advanced Infrastructure at Dimension Data MEA, shares some insight around how businesses are making infrastructure decisions that are more environmentally responsible:

•    Who do you do business with?
The first step is to make the impact on the environment a key part of the decision making matrix; then choose to partner with the suppliers who have like initiatives and conform to international standards that minimise the impact on the environment. Being environmentally sensitive not only impacts product design and product content, but also supplier practices.

•    What technology choices do you make?
Many vendors are building green into their newest generation products, making responsible decisions easier and more affordable. In dealing with the physical layer, there are many aspects that can be addressed. Specifying energy efficient technologies is now at the forefront of decision-making when acquiring new technologies, while purchasing Energy Star compliant computing equipment and reducing the number of purchased servers through virtualisation saves valuable resources plus energy for cooling and power.

•    When do you implement?
Planning to include green from the outset means that design elements pertaining to ICT and building infrastructure can be integrated for a more intelligent building that makes the most of scarce resources.

Proper road mapping can help identify the best opportunities to upgrade and enhance ICT technology, often including ‘friendlier’ technologies that save in the long term.

•    Where to from here?
Once the job is done, or technology reaches the end of its lifecycle, how waste materials are dealt with has significant impact on the environment.  It is essential that local companies participate in the efforts of reclaiming and utilising as much of their unused and excess products rather than merely providing them for land-fill or merely claiming to send it to a scrap-merchant.  Dimension Data actively works with suppliers to ensure that purchased packaging materials utilise the maximum amount of recycled materials.

“An active effort to minimise the impact on the environment is now a social responsibility that impacts from the start of the tender process, the installation and beyond the completion of the job.” concludes Shaw. “It’s not about doing the right thing, but about making it the only way forward.”

Nedbank’s Checklist:
•    Make Green It a business imperative
•    Partner with green-thinking suppliers, who in turn support  a greening of the supply chain
•    Opt to implement the very latest in emerging technology meant that Nedbank extended the lifespan of its infrastructure significantly
•    Select environmentally friendly components such as low smoke and  zero halogen cabling
•    Adopt responsible waste reduction (the main vendor’s  packaging components  are composed on average of 53% post-consumer products)