As more clients choose socially responsible investments, more financial advisors are adopting environmentally responsible policies in their offices. You can take a few simple steps to reduce your office technology’s environmental footprint.

Technology has two environmental aspects to it.

First, technology can be used to make the rest of your business greener by increasing efficiency and reducing consumption of paper, use of couriers, and so on.

Second, your technology’s hardware components should have minimal environmental impact.

> Efficiencies And Cost Savings

The benefits of that first aspect are easier to embrace because the return on investment — in the form of efficiencies and cost savings — is more immediate and measurable.

The greening qualities of technology lie in the ability to modernize existing processes and make them more efficient. If you run a relatively small practice, with 10 people or fewer, you may have few in-house information-technology skills. Therefore, you probably have a lot of room for improvement in the efficiency of your core process of information management.

Many of your operations may still rely heavily on paper-based processes that can be refined using technology.

For example, electronic document management can reduce the time it takes to recall client files by making them easy to search and retrieve by using keywords. Tying document management to client records in a contact-management system can both ease the pressure on administrative staff to keep paper-based records in order and make your organization more efficient.

> Your Technology’s Environmental Impact

The second aspect is harder, because the return on investment for this aspect is lower. Developing a socially responsible approach to buying technology involves time-consuming research.

It is easy to assume that simply buying a low-power laptop will be enough. But, in fact, things are more complex than that.

Green technology breaks down into three areas: procurement, operations and disposal.

> Procurement

This is perhaps the most difficult step in greening your technology because it is also the least visible. The personal computer you pull off the shelf at your local Future Shop has gone through a dramatic and varied history before it ever gets to the warehouse.

Everything from the hard drive through to the motherboard and the chips that reside on it are the results of an intensive production process that starts with the mining of the silica for the chips and the lithium for the battery. The processes for refining these materials into products pure enough to make sophisticated electronics require huge amounts of water and electricity, therefore producing significant amounts of greenhouse gases.

Relatively little research has been done on the environmental harm done in the production of electronic components. We do know that the more intricate a component is, the more energy is consumed in manufacturing it.

And then, of course, there are the questions surrounding working conditions for those involved in the production of electronics. Apple Corp. is currently defending Foxconn, a Taiwan-based manufacturer instrumental in supplying Apple’s computers, which has experienced a number of suicides at its Chinese plants.
@page_break@What does this mean for your procurement of technology? Ideally, it means “don’t procure.” It means using your existing components until they reach the end of their useful lives or buying used computers that are already in the supply chain. (You can still improve your technology vastly by upgrading the memory and software in your old computers.)

However, if you are going to purchase a new machine, Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics (www.greenpeace.org) is a useful resource. Covering the makers of both personal computers and phones, it names Apple, Sony Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. as the three computer ven-dors doing the most to make their production processes ethically acceptable.

HP, for example, publishes a report on its supply-chain ethics, with a strong emphasis on labour rights ( www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/society/supplychain/audit.html).

> Operations

Buying certain technologies can make a difference, although, for smaller offices, the resulting power savings will largely be symbolic. Buying a laptop is more power-efficient than buying a desktop computer, which will lose a lot of energy through its power supply.

When buying a printer, consider an ink-jet model rather than a laser printer, which needs lots of power to heat the element that binds the toner to the paper. The downside is that ink-jet printers generally print more slowly, so examine print speeds when making a decision.

> Disposal

The third facet of green technology is disposing of components when you’re finished with them. Sending your old computers, cellphones and other electronic components to spend eternity in a landfill is unacceptable, especially for an organization with a mandate of social responsibility.

Many provinces now require the recycling of electronic goods through e-waste facilities found across Canada. In Saskatchewan, for example, provincial recycling outlets now take your old computers in addition to your bottles, cans and plastic containers.

But is recycling enough? The smelting equipment and processes used to recycle computers can use inordinate amounts of carbon. Surely a more socially responsible policy would be to donate or sell your old equipment.

Industry Canada operates the Computers for Schools initiative, which takes commercially used machines and channels them to needy schools and libraries.

Alternatively, provincial charities may be able to assist you in finding an appreciative home for your used components.

The Electronic Recycling Association ( www.era.ca) also handles donations and distributions to schools, as does Toronto-based Reboot Canada ( www.rebootcanada.ca).

For more on safe electronic-waste management, visit Electronic Products Stewardship Canada at www.epsc.ca.

Before you donate or sell your old machines, however, ensure that their hard drives have been entirely wiped. Simply deleting or “quick formatting” a hard drive is not enough, because that simply deletes the “pointers” that the operating system uses to locate information on the hard drive. Your data will still be recoverable using off-the-shelf tools.

Use a free wiping tool, such as Eraser ( http://eraser.heidi.ie) or Darik’s Boot and Nuke ( www.dban.org), which will overwrite the data on the hard drive, rendering it truly useless.

Following these steps will help you make your office technology greener. And it will speak volumes about your commitment to the environment and to social responsibility.

IE