IBM: Measure, measure and measure some more

So far, the main green tech consulting offerings have emerged from the biggest of the big systems vendors and this latest service I'm referencing today out of IBM is no different.

The new IBM Green Sigma offering, for those companies that do the Lean Sigma thing, focuses on how to help businesses reduce their energy and water usage throughout their organization with an eye to increasing efficiency, cutting costs and decreasing environmental impact. The service fits in with a bunch of other new IBM services related to business ethics and corporate social responsibility that I wrote about in late June.

The tool focuses not just on data centers, information technology infrastructure and office facilities but on transportation methods, research and development sites and so on. Green Sigma has five specific phases:

- Establishing key performance indicators related to a particular company's operating profile. - Creating a way to measure and manage specific carbon output and inefficient water use areas. - Setting up a Carbon and Water Management Dashboard for monitoring performance indicators. - Offering suggestions about how to finetune and improve existing processes to meet specific goals. - Creating ongoing strategies for activities such as carbon trading that actually can turn a green initiative into a money-making one for your company.

For a demo of how the Carbon and Water Management Dashboard works, you can visit this link. Caution, this gives you an executable, one which I haven't been able to test on my Macintosh.