Media Statement - 25th November 2009
The Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Brendan O'Connor today congratulated the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) on winning the 2009 Australian Computer Society, Canberra Branch, Green ICT Award (Corporate).
The ACC won the award for becoming fully Green ICT Certified by Computer's Off Australia (COA).
The Minister said the ACC was the first organisation to become fully Green ICT certified by Computer's Off Australia and is a leader in achieving IT sustainability.
"Across Government, agencies are implementing low cost measures to realise energy efficiency savings. It is very encouraging to see the Australian Crime Commission taking a lead in this area and being recognised for it. The ACC has managed to achieve this without adversely affecting the vital operations of the commission," Mr O'Connor said.
The ACC has implemented hardware and software solutions to better manage power consumption and reduced its physical number of servers by 45 per cent. By purchasing carbon offsets, the ACC's entire IT infrastructure is now carbon neutral.
Mr O'Connor said that in addition to significant energy and cost savings, the ACC's green initiative included other benefits such as productivity efficiencies, increased security, improved data management and improved service delivery for users, including partner agencies using the Australian Criminal Intelligence Database.
"Every individual and organisation should be taking steps to improve power management and reduce green house gases. Through this achievement, the ACC will now save 435 tonnes of greenhouse gases per annum, which equates to 75 passenger vehicles," Mr O'Connor said.
"The ACC will also save approximately $80 000 per annum in power and $43 000 per annum in licensing and maintenance fees."
Computers Off Australia (COA) is a not-for-profit educational and awareness campaign aiming to help raise awareness of the amount of power used when computers are left on or idle. It aims to enable consumer's and businesses' power management to make significant savings in green house gases and money and has developed a three-tick labelling system that identifies individuals and organisations who are using power saving devices with their home and work PCs. The labelling scheme certifies organisations using three colour-coded ticks that represent Power Management (Green), Virtualisation (Blue) and Carbon Neutral (Gold).