Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Freshfields has experienced significant cost savings, as well as other indirect benefits, by reducing its PC energy waste
We found it hard to get lawyers to switch off their PCs despite repeated reminders. They need to be able to access the network from the office, at home or abroad, at any time. This means that essential software downloads or maintenance work are very hard to schedule.
Our experience is that lawyers don’t like to wait for a PC to boot up, so they leave it on; often even leaving a document on screen, going home and expecting it to still be there ready to continue working on it the next morning.
We therefore needed a solution that would allow us to save energy by cutting the power to a PC, but one which would also allow the user to instantly go back to the middle of an open and saved document in one click of a button.
In partnership with IT Energy Ltd a software system called Verdiem Surveyor was installed in our London office to be trialled initially by about 400 staff in our IT department. Having passed their rigorous tests it was then rolled out, not only across the London office, but worldwide.
A typical PC consumes nearly 600 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually. Surveyor can help reduce that energy consumption by an average of 200 kWh per PC per year. Surveyor works by intelligently placing PCs into lower power settings when not in use. The software employs a centralised control and management approach to managing the power settings residing within each networked computer. This maximizes energy savings without interfering with end-user productivity or desktop maintenance. Surveyor also features comprehensive reporting capabilities to quantify savings.
We have already identified direct cost savings of £85,000 – on expenditure of £90,000 that’s not far short of a one-year payback. Other indirect benefits are:
- seamless integration and low risk compatability with other IT systems
- no training or awareness of staff is required (most did not even notice we had installed it)
- no start-up costs
- technical support and help are provided, but virtually no ongoing maintenance is needed
- the functionality enables any member of staff to leave a PC and return later and carry on with a document, exactly as they wanted
Projected energy reductions per year are 922 MWh, reducing our global carbon footprint by almost 400 tonnes of CO2e.