Well, the more I hear about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and as I read more about what is going on within our facilities around the globe, it seems that maybe the folks over in the UK at the Association of Certified Accounts, with their “10 Steps to Reducing Emissions at the Office,” got the vital first point of any sustainability plan right. It all starts with the need to involve staff. Wow, now there’s a solid piece of advice that we facilities professionals know all too well, as our best ideas for energy savings are often completely ignored for lack of company-wide buy-in.

With that as a backdrop let’s jump right into Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSR) and what it means for facilities professionals. Most CSR activities focus on the triple bottom line, also known as the three P’s: People, Planet, Profit. In the facilities world we prefer action, so we talk about the Three R’s — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — to create a genuine call to action. It gives us actions that we can implement, monitor and report with clearly defined metrics and goals using everyday tools and resources.

Over the next few columns we will explore the Three R’s in depth. Today we start with Reduce, the big Kahuna that sets many of our sustainability and energy efficiency practices into motion, especially when speak about computers, networks, printers, storage, and other IT or business systems equipment. Numerous studies suggest that merely turning off idle equipment can have an almost 3:1 cascading effect across the building. That means simply shutting off that copier over the weekend can save three times the 50 to 200 watts/hour it may draw in “stand-by.” That adds up to some big savings pretty quickly when you start shutting off idle assets all over the building and campus.

And despite what we may hear from the IT folks, all enterprise IT power is not consumed within the data center. In fact, some studies suggest that more than two-thirds of enterprise compute power may be consumed outside the data center in areas where the facilities organization can lead the effort to manage and reduce energy consumption in real-time. There are many paths to reducing the power load in these areas, including eliminating devices, desktop virtualization and simply turning idle assets off — right down to the power strip — when not in use.

One surefire way to reduce energy consumption is pretty simple — turn off idle IT assets. Computers systems are time dependent, meaning IT and facility managers generally know when these devices will be used, for how long and how much power is required to support them.

For instance, software tools can shut down equipment automatically, somewhat like automatic motion-detector light switches, which facility managers have embraced for years to reduce wasted energy consumption. These tools go way beyond the simple user-defined OS-based power management settings and enable those network/security patches to run as needed.

These new software tools deliver real documented energy savings — often paying for themselves in less than one year. The U.S. EPA has created two portals for information and downloads of these tools, including open-source and commercial offerings. (Disclaimer: I have friends at 1e, Lakeside Software, and Verdium and Emerson recently acquired Avocent). They all work, so do a little homework, read the case studies, talk to your IT suppliers then pick and deploy one to start reducing your enterprise power demand.

Most companies try to regulate desktops, laptops and network-connected IT devices outside the data center through IT, HR and corporate policies. With some reminders, many employees will turn off computers when they leave at the end of the day. Of course, if all else fails, facilities managers can tie the power outlet to the automatic motion-detector light switch and shut everything down at night.

Now if I can figure out a way to put a system that bulletproof in place for my teenage son’s bedroom, I’ll be set. (Fortunately he has learned to use the on/off master switch we installed just below the light switch to shut off most of his electronic toys.)